Like I said, I wished the series had had a longer run with possibly some additional episodes per season as well as a fourth season. It would have necessitated changing up the existing three seasons of course. I felt they rushed a few things and I would have loved to see a few more two or three part mini arcs.
Naturally, this being my favorite show, I could have stood to watch more of it, but this is the program I hold up as an example of storytelling through the medium of television. I have a great amount of respect for the creators of the show for setting out to do exactly what they did, which was tell a perfectly crafted trilogy, while creating a unique and original world, inhabited by great characters.
I don't know anything at all about the fiction, but the movie appears to be about a four year old who can throw tornadoes. That about right?
Well of course, that's simplifying it a bit, but essentially yes. I believe the main character is a little older than that, though. I think in the series he was supposed to be around 11 or 12 at the start of the series, though technically he's about 111 or 112 when the story starts. I apologize, but I'm about to get very geeky about the show here, in case anyone is interested. None of what follows contains spoilers, as it's all information about stuff that happens before the show even starts.
I think, actually, that the best possible synopsis of the show is the one that the character Katara gives over the intro to each show:
Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements could stop them. But, when the world needed him most, he vanished.
A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone.
But I believe, Aang can save the world.
That's the most basic summary, but from there the idea is that Aang, who can control the element of air, needs to learn how to control the other three elements in order to defeat the Fire Lord.
To expand: in this world, the Avatar is a being who is reincarnated into each tribe of the world in the succession mentioned at the start of the intro. The ruler of the Fire Nation wished to rule the world, but couldn't as long as there was an Avatar to stand in his way, even though that Avatar was born to the Fire Nation. Once that Avatar passed away, the Fire Lord, knowing the next Avatar would be an Air Nomad, ordered his army to wipe out the Air Nomads before the new Avatar could master all the elements (I can't think of any other Nick cartoons that deal with complete genocide).
So yeah, the show starts off on genocide and war, and takes off from there to be, IMO, one of the greatest epic stories I've ever experienced, with a fully realized world that's unlike any others I can think of.
Again, sorry for geeking out and gushing about this thing, but I truly adore this show. With all this talk about it, I think I'm going to start it again for the fourth time now...
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