You know what I do not see enough appreciation for? AtLA’s historical allusions. I don’t just mean in terms of the dress and art and things like that, though that definitely is cool. I mean in the fact that it dealt with the suppression of Tibetan Buddhists and Imperial Japan’s colonialism and racism and the attempt to wipe out Native cultures. And it shows all the different ways people respond to these issues, from the blithe disregard of the people at the Northern Air Temple to Jet and Hama’s extremism to Pakku’s ironclad grip on tradition to Katara’s balance of change and presevation to the Fire Nation children’s casual racism to Zuko’s gradual unlearning to Aang’s desperate fight to ensure his culture survives. AtLA was so much more political than people give it credit for. That shit is really cool and complex and if anyone wants to talk about that, I am always down.
Also the way that these nations are not only separated by element but by culture, skin color, music (we heard very different music in the fire nation as we did in the earth kingdom)
Also different food, different kind of government, different type of ruling (earth king, fire lord, chief of the water tribe)
This show isn’t a kid show, even though I enjoyed watching it as a kid, I would’ve never learned all of this if I didn’t rewatch it as an “adult”
I love this show soooo much