Avatar Last Airbender is the G.O.AT. of animation no doubt

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And by G.O.A.T. I mean the Greatest Of All Time

The entire series is a literal ethereal masterpiece, a sublime experience, a story that both embodied the zeitgeist of animation for its time while aging so perfectly a decade and a half later the show still has an amazing cult following and is regularly analyzed and dissected by Youtube essayists and literary afficiandos as a perfect example of well done storytelling.

The main character is actually an interesting and unique character and not some anime archetype like 99% of anime protagonists, who either fall into 1 of 2 dichotomous tropes: loudmouth, brash, strong-willed savior or brooding, edgy, bishonen teen.

The antagonist prince Zuko has the greatest character development I've ever seen in any medium of fiction, and his redemption arc still stands as the greatest example of how to write a proper redemption arc to this day

The magical system of ATLA (Avatar the Last Airbender) is the most creative, expansive and thematically entwined with the greater story structure and the themes it embodies as far from being just a fancy martial arts elemental gimmick, the 4 elements correspond to unique martial arts embodying core themes and philosophies that form the foundation of the story's world building and ideas. They took a magic system that's been overdone in all works of fiction, 4 elemental powers, but actually expanded upon such an overused idea to create not just a gorgeously animated tapestry of exhilarating fight choreography but a much more rich, layered and deeper story about different philosophies and ways of life and how only by achieving balance from all 4 elements can one find stability and peace in life

The other main antagonist, Azula, had more psychological depth and complexity in that one scene of her hallucinating her mom and raging at the mirror than some shows spend entire seasons trying to convey for their characters. In 1 scene ATLA literally gave Azula as much depth as freaking Shakespeare struggled to cram into a longwinded soliloquy for his protagonists

The female characters are actually awesome and compelling characters with captivating motivations, character arcs, and well done character designs that transcend the generic sexist trope laden garbage most anime put out for their female characters.

Every character in the show gets treatment, attention and organic growth as the series progresses. Aang goes from a coward who is carefree and avoids responsibility to a mature and responsible Avatar who embraces his duty to save the world, Zuko goes from a lost, petulant and impetuous teen wanting to hunt the Avatar to please his father to a balanced aid to the Avatar who found his own destiny and helped restore balance to the world, Sokka went from a sexist and useless pig to a talented strategist and open minded guy, Toph went from stubborn and rigid to opening up to others help, and Katara went from more passive and weak to more strong willed as the series progresses.

The world building is rich, creative and a cornucopia of different Asian cultures seamlessly blended together to create a truly authentic show that does justice to the Asian world and its myriad rich cultures and civilizations. The Air nomads are based on the Tibetan monks, the Fire Nation is based off of Imperial Japan, the Earth kingdom is based off of Qing dynasty China, and the water tribes are based off of the Inuit.

The show is a meme!! Yes the show can be really sad, emotional and poignant, especially scenes like when Iroh reconciled with Zuko, but despite how the show manages to tug at your hug strings a lot it is still no less whimsical, hilarious and just mematic in a way that has garnered this show a cult like following for how perfectly it aged and endeared itself to the sensibilities of generations to come. Episodes like "The Ember Island Players" where meta-commentary is offered on the show thinly veiled as satire, or Sokka's entire character, or even the legendary cactus juice scene, all reinforce how this show knows how to perfectly balance a riveting and emotional story with a huge dose of levity and fun to make the entire experience of the show always captivating and never boring

I can honestly go on forever expounding upon the masterpiece that is ATLA, but watching the show yourself is the only way to do such an animated masterpiece anything close to justice