Welcome to the third installment of my Avatar Nostalgiblog series. If you're not familiar with what it is, it's basically me looking back towards the Legend of Korra's predecessor, Avatar: The Last Airbender during the absence of anything Avatar-related going on. I look back towards a topic that interests me and talk about it for a while, and then ask what you think on the subject. Originally, I intended this blog to be a weekly series, but I realized that ideas can't be scheduled, so I don't intend to schedule them. The amount and frequency of these blogs do depend on their success/popularity, but even then, don't expect a new blog every week, or even every month. I may also talk about some things outside of this beta-series, like I have in the past.
Today, however, is a little different; instead of going over a single subject, as I have with the last two blogs, I'm going to be counting down my top 7 least favorite Avatar episodes. Why 7, you ask? Because top 10's are too mainstream, that's why. (It may possibly have to do with the fact that I could barely find 7 episodes that I disliked enough. Possibly.)
But before we start, I'd like to say that these are simply my OPINIONS and nothing more, so don't go on a rage-spree because I don't like an episode that you do. In addition, this isn't going to be focusing in any way on things like importance to the series overall, aspects of what makes a good episode, etc. I'm no professional critic. This list is just which episodes I found the least memorable or the ones that I enjoyed the least. But without further ado, let's get to it.
- SEVEN
- Bato of the Water Tribe
- I don't persay dislike this episode as much as I find it forgettable. Heck, it was one of the few episodes I had to go back and read the summary to remember what all was in it. Don't get me wrong, it isn't at all a bad episode in itself, but I just feel it doesn't stand up nearly as well to most other episodes; even out of most episodes from season 1. The more or less coming-of-age story with Sokka and the boating (I forget the term they used) feels a bit dry; I didn't find June to be that much of an entertaining or interesting character (which I'm sure many of you will disagree with); Bato felt surprisingly essence-less, even for a side character; the whole Aang going alone because he lied to Sokka and Katara even felt a bit childish. Overall, the main problem I have with this episode is its forgettability, not its quality.
- Bato of the Water Tribe
- SIX
- Jet
- This one isn't really forgettable like Bato of the Water Tribe was. The reason this episode made the list is just because, well... I simply don't like Jet. Or the freedom fighters. Or the single running "instinct" joke. In regards to Jet, I don't really dislike him because he lied and betrayed Aang, Sokka, and Katara--although that plays a decent sized part in it--I dislike him because he's basically the bad-boy troubled past version of Peter Pan. Really, the entire setup is similar to Peter Pan's story; a bunch of kids in a hidden fort fighting strong, grown (in this case, military-trained) men, who in reality would have no trouble dispatching them. I did, however, like how Sokka was shown in a more serious light (being the savior of the day and all), but that doesn't make up for the rest of it.
- Jet
- FIVE
- Imprisoned
- The humor throughout the series in most cases supports it greatly, making it much more entertaining to watch. However, this episode felt... off. By miles. Seriously, as a 9 year old watching the episode for the first time, I remember cringing when I saw the awkwardly dramatic shot and Katara shouting "EARTHBENDING STYLE!" . Not to mention the ridiculous banter over Sokka's ears beforehand and the intentionally and obviously bad acting by the both of them that's already overused in kids' shows. And the guards actually thinking Momo was earthbending... *sigh* Really, Bryke? Really? The humor isn't my only complaint, either. I felt like Haru himself was a bit boring, and Katara's speech near the end felt a tad cheesy. But that's all I really dislike about the episode; Haru's father is great, and the emotion in the secondary and background characters felt genuine.
- Imprisoned
- FOUR
- The Runaway
- Another episode where the humor felt a bit forced and virtually unfunny. I was never a fan of the fights between Toph and Katara. After travelling together for months and seeming to have emotionally bonded in Tales of Ba Sing Se, they still somehow manage to squabble over something as petty as Toph's rebelliousness and Katara's overprotectiveness. Them making Katara have a sudden burst of motherliness right when she's denying she has any is also an overused joke. As for the rest of the episode, it plainly felt boring and unappealing. The only redeeming factors for me were Hawky (I mean, who doesn't like Hawky?) and Combustion Man, simply because he's pretty awesome.
- The Runaway
- THREE
- Avatar Day
- Writing this made me realize how good I thought book 2 was; not only is it the only episode of book 2 to make the list, it's the only Earth episode I find even slightly unentertaining! As for this episode... There is the deal with Sokka's weird detective getup, but that isn't too big of a deal. The only thing that remotely interesting was seeing Kyoshi in person (I think?) and the history of her island, but the rest is... less to be desired. The characters I find boring and/or annoying, their "justice" system made the town seem like a dictatorship, the entire evidence-collecting process bored me, and the Rough Rhinos would have been more remotely interesting if they weren't nearly as easy to beat as the faceless Fire Nation soldiers.
- Avatar Day
- TWO
- Nightmares and Daydreams
- Looking back at it, a lot of the complaints I have with these episodes rely solely on the episodes humor. It goes to show you how good this series is if the only real complaint I have with an episode is only a small aspect of it. But, I digress. Nightmares and Daydreams suffered from not only what I felt as unfunny and in some cases overly-childish humor, but weird to the point of absurd humor. Seriously, I know that sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations, but not to the point of someone on LSD or bath salts! The dreams were offsetting, the hallucinations were even more disturbing, and the entire episodes revolves simply around Aang's anxiety, which is (for some reason) solved entirely by sleeping on sheep fur.
- Nightmares and Daydreams
And my number one least favorite episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender is...
...
- ONE
- The Great Divide
- I'm sure several of you will agree with me when I say I think this is one of the, if not the worst episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I myself didn't realize how bad it was until after I joined the Wiki, heard people discussing how bad of an episode it was, and revisited it myself. And oh man does it deserve to be on this list. The characters are just bad, the scenery (minus the single overview of the entire canyon) is dull, the concept for the animosity between the villages is shallow, and the "resolution" for the series is just... ugh. Thanks to one of my friends trying/nearly forcing me to get into Japanese culture, I how have a strong distaste for most anything anime- or manga-related, especially those little overdone emotions shown by disproportions of one's body/face, including chibis. Now, I can handle several-second blips of the stuff in shows (which Avatar nearly always does great with), but Aang's "history lesson" is a minute+ straight of overly adorable chibi-ness. And I thought the art directions of the villages' stories was off...
- The Great Divide
Thanks for reading, and congratulations if you made it through all of that. Now that my opinion is out of the way, I want to know what you think. Feel free to list your 7 least favorite episodes below, or just leave comment or ask a question on anything I said above. Post whatever you like, as long as it's on topic and remains civil.