Nostalgia Critic- Avatar The Last Airbender

[Koolaidkirby]

HAHAHAHAHA oh man, the more I watch this guy's vlogs the more I feel like I'm learning from him, but not what he is saying. The more I'm becoming convinced that Amon was a red herring; and its amazing how well that works, because of how impatient he gets with how little LoK showed of the guy. And the more he gets impatient, the more I can start to see a little bit of Korra herself in him: and its starting to remind me of other people doing this throughout the show's original run.

Note to self: steal the "villain as red herring" technique. Good writing methods like that are hard to come by.

I agree with him being impatient, how do you get impatient with a show or a location in that show that's only 3 or 4 episodes in? its not like its a 20 episode season about pro bending, its just a subplot ffs. Although I agree with him that the love triangle was bleh.

[Sinewmire]

Going back to The Last Airbender - I was watching The Siege of the North and Han, the jerk betrothed to princess Yue, refers to Sokka as "Soaka". Heh.

[Crazedwraith]

So Anyway he's finished up now. And joined by Rob, who will not stop whining about people comments on the TLA V Logs, but no the plus side he agrees with me about the quickness of the finale.

[Dartzap]

His review of the film is up.

[Ahriman238]

A 40 minute one at that. Pretty stuffed with references to the show too, particularly Shymalan as Amon removing the talent of decent actors. And for a man who complained before about overusing the Foaming Mouth Guy gag...

[Iroscato]

The Nostalgia Critic convinced me to finally give Avatar a go. And honestly, it's one of the best damn shows I've ever seen. I burned through all three seasons over the last week, and just finished the finale tonight. I'm in a happy place right now

[Ahriman238]

It really is the miracle show where everything came together, from Nickelodeon even, which isn't exactly know for it's quality entertainment these days.

Just as an aside, the vlogs are continuing as new Korra episodes air.

Rebel Spirits/Southern Lights

[JME2]

The Nostalgia Critic convinced me to finally give Avatar a go. And honestly, it's one of the best damn shows I've ever seen. I burned through all three seasons over the last week, and just finished the finale tonight. I'm in a happy place right now

Yeah, it really is something special, isn't it?

"Sozin's Comet" especially ranks among my favorite series finales of all time.

[Lord Relvenous]

Yeah, the ending fight between Zuko and Azula is the most gorgeous piece of animation I've ever seen.

[Iroscato]

So how does Korra match up to Airbender overall?

[JME2]

So how does Korra match up to Airbender overall?

The first season is quite excellent.

Because it started as an extended mini-series, the storytelling is much tighter. There's no filler and all 12 episodes contribute to the overall arc.

The choice of antagonist -- the Equalists -- are a different and in a lot of ways more interesting antagonist than the Fire Nation.

The characters -- especially Korra -- embody some of the characteristics of the original characters, but are different enough to avoid being the Gaang 2.0.

So far, Book 2's so-so.

[Iroscato]

It might sound silly, but after watching ATLA and falling love with the show and the characters, I'm rather hesitant to watch Korra, as I know that Spoiler

Aang has been dead for several years, as has Sokka, and Katara's an 85 year old woman.

[Lord Relvenous]

It might sound silly, but after watching ATLA and falling love with the show and the characters, I'm rather hesitant to watch Korra, as I know that Spoiler

Aang has been dead for several years, as has Sokka, and Katara's an 85 year old woman.

Spoiler

It is sad to know that the GAang won't be a part of the story, but trust me, you'll very much enjoy the characters we meet in the show. Also, the world LoK takes place in is directly influenced by what the GAang did. Look at the show as a way to see their legacy, not more of their stories. And the world developed in it is intricate, interesting, and very nuanced.

Seriously though, watch it. While it won't be The Last Airbender, it is certainly still Avatar.

[Ahriman238]

Civil Wars part 2

[Ahriman238]

Right, I'm an idiot. That's part one.

This is part 2.

[Crazedwraith]

Ok, so he's going through Adventure Time now. Got to keep that revenue stream coming in. But I've never seen any Adventure Time, so I don't know how interested people will be.

[Iroscato]

Adventure Time is hilarious, I'll see what he makes of it

[Crazedwraith]

He's done a top eleven worst episodes for this series as an editorial.

It's viewable: Here and is up on the main site tonight. Worth a watch for his thoughts and a surprise at the end.

i can see his logic for a fair view of his choices. And they tally a lot with his known opinions on unoriginal plots. But others not so much especially 11 and 10 which just seems to be criticising them to take some time for character development. I don't think you could fit Boiling Rock into one episode without spoiling it for example.

On an non-avatar note. I wonder why he's releasing episodes a day early on another site. It's the kind of thing I expect to a patreon or reward or something. Not for everyone.

[Guardsman Bass]

I disagree with his opinion on "The Great Divide". I thought it showed that Aang had a cunning side to him, as well as a creative way of figuring out solutions beyond the obvious difficult ones (which came in handy later in the series).
Spoiler

The whole point with the feud was that it was so old and petty that they didn't really even know what it was truly about anymore, so telling them a small lie that ended the feud was more or less harmless.

I do agree with the criticism of Jet and the whole "We don't teach women how to fight-bend in the Northern Water Tribe, although I notch that down to the show still being in the first season and trying to get itself sorted out. The sexism was something that was resolved and never showed up again in any other bending context (in fact, one of the things I like about both Avatar series is that it shows a world that's more or less free of typical sexism), and Jet probably would have been a better character if he'd been introduced in Season 2, or later. In fact, he is a more interesting character when we see him in Season 2, traveling with Zuko.

[Vendetta]

I disagree with his opinion on "The Great Divide". I thought it showed that Aang had a cunning side to him, as well as a creative way of figuring out solutions beyond the obvious difficult ones (which came in handy later in the series).
Spoiler

The whole point with the feud was that it was so old and petty that they didn't really even know what it was truly about anymore, so telling them a small lie that ended the feud was more or less harmless.

I do agree with the criticism of Jet and the whole "We don't teach women how to fight-bend in the Northern Water Tribe, although I notch that down to the show still being in the first season and trying to get itself sorted out. The sexism was something that was resolved and never showed up again in any other bending context (in fact, one of the things I like about both Avatar series is that it shows a world that's more or less free of typical sexism), and Jet probably would have been a better character if he'd been introduced in Season 2, or later. In fact, he is a more interesting character when we see him in Season 2, traveling with Zuko.

Spoiler

Jet, and the situation he's in, was more interesting in season 2 partly because we know who he was and what he's about from the first series.

Most of the criticisms of episode seem to be "this episode follows too common a formula"

My only real disagreement with the list (because yes, all the episodes on it have redeeming features, and are all, possibly barring The Great Divide, necessary to the series from the perspective of character or plot development, but there are definitely stronger episodes than basically all of them in Avatar) is that The Boiling Rock does need to be a two parter, and Imprisoned is a strictly worse version of the same concept with less interesting stakes.