Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) (abbreviated as ATLA), is an animated show I watched at 7, and the only thing I gathered from it was the fact that it had some cool fight scenes, and was pretty slow paced compared to most cartoons I had seen. When I watched it again at 14, I was a lot more focused on the story, and I really enjoyed it. The plot was unique, and the main story arc lasted the entire 61 episode show. I found myself more attached to all the characters compared to cartoons that "reset" after most episodes. The antagonists aren't just an obstacle for the heroes to overcome, they had their own screen time and struggles, and I felt genuine sympathy for the villains. Coming back to it as an adult, I noticed that there were still a huge amount of subtle details that I had missed. The world is incredibly fleshed out, and the characters are dynamic and multi-faceted. I genuinely recommend this to everyone. Even my dad liked it, and he doesn't watch TV.
Below are some of the reasons I think the show deserves a watch, even for adults.
Spoilers ahead!
Avatar is a kids show, but it tackles some pretty heavy topics, including: domestic violence, sexism, trauma and PTSD, racism, and even genocide. As a kid, it was just a cool show. These topics are shown, not told, so as a kid most of it flew over my head. This deserves a watch no matter your age, and maybe even two or three! All of the elemental nations have their own culture, history, and form of government. Characters die, and die for good. Both mental health and mental illness are tackled full on.
A good scene that displays the depth of this show is this one here:
As a kid, this is just the villian having a meltdown because she lost the battle.
But as an adult, you realize that she is suffering a complete and utter psychotic break. This is the final piece in the story of an abused child's unrecoverable descent into psychosis.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5clkiJ_azL8?feature=oembedWhile a suprising number of kids shows get hour long Youtube deepdives into their characters psychology (including this one),
https://www.youtube.com/embed/R4544ZUr_gA?feature=oembedNot a lot of kid's shows get a breakdown of their characters by Dr. Carol Panetta, the President of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.
https://bgsp.edu/avatar-the-last-airbender/Avatar: The Last Airbender Is not just a kids show.