Reasons I Love Avatar 3: War

The central subject matter of Avatar is a world-wide war. It is also a show rated for children. Therefor the show is replete spectacular battles with elements and technology where no one is shown dying or even getting hurt, people slamming hard enough into walls to break them down and bouncing back up to fight, and fireballs flung all over the place with remarkably few people getting actually burned.

(I don't fault the creators for the cartoon violence, by the way. There's nothing wrong with working within the rating while bringing important issues to younger audiences. And I realize I'm the weird one here for expecting those otter-penguins to suffer abdominal ruptures every time I watch the penguin-sledding scene from "The Boy in the Iceberg." You're welcome for the mental image.)

But when I think of the treatment of war in Avatar, I don't think of any of those flashy scenes. I think of this guy:

( Reason 3: War (In which I quote Hobbes and otherwise scare people away.) )

 

Two Realizations: Extended Fanfic Notes

I have the best boyfriend in the world. How do I know? He's the one who got me hooked on Avatar: The Last Airbender. I ended up getting way, way more into it than he ever did, but he was the one who got me started by introducing me to the show.

A few months ago, I had not finished Book 2 yet when I searched for relatively spoiler-safe Avatar posts and noticed a strange word, "Zutara." I put two and two together and realized that there were people who shipped Katara and Zuko. Evidently a lot of them. I called the boyfriend and reported this amazing fact, and he burst out laughing.

 

( "Yeah," he said. "There was a little something between them." )