I just finished watching the whole series right now…..and OH MY GOD.
To be honest, this is one of the most amazing cartoons I have ever seen. The show is just absolutely fantastic in every way and I couldn't ask for more. It's just perfect for me because I love both drama and fantasy (in this case, martial arts fantasy). When the show got popular, I was around 9-12 years old at the time, but I never caught on to it. I saw Nostalgia Critic reviewing the movie adaptation of Avatar and since the show's clips looked intriguing to me, I wanted to start watching it and I do not regret that decision. I know, it's weird for me to catch up on many cool things so late, but I don't care. In my heart, I think Avatar deserves to be up there with Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and etc. in the category of long epic stories.
For my quick thoughts on the movie, I'll simplify it in one sentence: It's crap.
Onto the series:
What I really like about the show is that it knows how to balance the humor and drama really well and both sides of the series have caught me either laughing or having me on the edge of my seat. For cartoon shows at least, it's rare for me to cry more than once as a first viewer, but this show had me crying several times. Yes; it is that good.The history behind the war and the past lives of the Avatar were great and I was interested in every single detail. Philosophy is a fascinating subject to tackle on and it's difficult to catch the attention of a kid on its heavy details, but it works well here. Plus, I actually learned about the nature of every element and how special they play a role in the world.
My favorite characters would have to be:
Toph
Iroh
Zuko
Katara
Azula
For my favorite kind of bending, it's earth.