One Reason Avatar's Characters Feel So Real

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[Zeugnimodms]

I still feel that The Desert is Katara's best episode. While she has no badass fighting scenes like in the Southern Raiders or soapbox moments like in the Waterbending Master, it affirms that her best attributes aren't just in her fighting prowess or righteous speeches. In an episode where Toph is helpless, Sokka is tripping, and Aang is distraught to the point of going out of his way to kill something, Katara remained as the one person who was able to hold the group together and the only person who came to Aang at the end instead of away. In essence, The Desert highlights Katara at her best as not a warrior or as an activist, but as the nurturing dynamo that kept the group moving at their lowest.

[Advent]

Avatar is the gift that never stopped giving.

[lt.tangerine]

Even though this is about AirBender, it highlights what LOK was missing, "filler episodes" or moments of downtime for deeper character explorations. With only 12 episodes a season there was no time for these kinds of episodes.

[UltimateKyuubiFox]

The Desert also does the brilliant job of making sure you care about Appa as much as Aang does, by making you feel his absence. What once would’ve easily been a story where you cut to the Serpents Pass, now requires an entire episode-long ordeal of the Gaang struggling to get out of this massive desert all on their own, showing how trapped they now are without him. You’re made to feel the full weight of the loss.

[ariannarose]

The beach also mostly explored Azula and her human/soft side

[EricJEarley]

Kurt Vonnegut once said "Every sentence must do one of two things - reveal character, or advance the action". I think the same can be said of episodes like these.
Advancing the action is great, but sometimes you need an episode to reveal who these characters are, to the audience and to the characters themselves.

[gentlemandemon]

I generally don't like people using the term "filler" for episodes like these. It's weird to treat anything that's not immediately advancing the central narrative as extraneous. Anime has genuine filler where no changes to the status quo can be made and the episodes only serve to pad the episode count for the purposes of waiting for canon material arc. You don't lose anything when you watch Naruto and decide to skip to Shippuden after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, but you absolutely lose important characterization, team dynamics, and world building if you skip these episodes of Avatar.

[ShadowGirlie]

Even though Avatar is considered "children program/show" it truly captured the essences of "all audiences". It handled matured themes so the adults/teens can relate while still keeping a fun/childish nature for children to enjoy. Its a S-Class standard/example for television, that may never be replicated or surpassed. And honestly, if the show was just made for just an "adult audience" it would definitely not be as good as it was since they're losing the limitation/requirement (fun/childish nature) for creating a show primarily just for "children". It's much more impressive they were able to make a show intended for children so grand/inspiring/relatable for all ages to enjoy.

[ianstudebaker]

Avatar is a show where on the eighth rewatch I can still find something new. For example, in the library, S2 E10, Aang finds a drawing of a lion turtle, something we won’t see until the finale.

[x]

When it comes to amazing writing for an animated "children's" show, I view Avatar doing for this generation what Batman the animated series did for mine. Thank you for this video Royal Ocean

[houston-coley]

The 4:3 aspect ratio! You absolute madlad. I love it.

[NBCmotion]

I somehow missed Avatar completely when it was on air in my teens. I just finished the series for the first time today. The desert episode was one of my favorites, largely because of Sokka and the cactus juice.

[tofu_golem]

The important thing about those episodes is that we got emotional context.

When Aang shut down emotionally in the episode following the Desert, it hurt more because we saw how angry he was in the Desert. We saw Katara ay her most motherly, which helped us understand more when we learned why she became motherly. We saw Toph as a normal vulnerable blind girl without her "Earth sense."

In the Beach, we learned things about those characters that added emotional weight when Azula was betrayed by her two closest friends, and we understood why Zuko was willing to betray his own father.

Without the character beats of these episodes, a lot of what happened later would have made less sense and had less emotional impact.

[chaddafoe]

Great Video.
And, Avatar: TLA doesn't have a single "filler" episode.

Even tho the "filler episodes", like you mentioned "The Great Devide" doesn't move the central plot forward, they still:
1. Contribute to worldbuilding, the political and historical landscape and/or
2. Challenges Aang/the other characters where they learn a lesson that further shapes their characters.
3. Make room for showing more of these character dynamics and adventure without the baggage of always moving the central plot. (Part of the reason why I'm missing these characters is that I'm missing these adventures.)
4. And then there are those very character driven episodes, like the ones you made the video about. Another example: Tales of Ba Sing Se.

When I was watching this, I knew some would call some of these episodes "filler", but if these episodes still furthers the above aspects of a story, then the term completely loses its meaning here, doesn't it?

[sukisupremacy]

The Beach episode was my favorite by far. It helps by humanizing characters that we previously only saw one side of.

[leila]

Katara is like she represents how most people act but she has bending. And that's why most people don't like her. Not sexism. But because we see ourselves on screen and don't like that and try to joke about it to make us feel better. I love Atla for giving us phenomenal writing in a " child's " show!!

[maxresdefault_]

Bottle episodes tend to be my favourite episodes of my favourite shows. When you have good writers and the right characters, a story unfolding over 20 minutes in real-time in a single room can be the most captivating thing.

That’s the best part about working with limitations, they force you to get creative.

[cosmicwitchclarith]

Zuko's confession of his anger at himself litterly made me tear up?? Like the voice acting is so strong there

[yannick]

1:35
''...Nothing is lost''
Except for Appa and Zuko's honor.

[joaoobaixista]

That's something I missed in Korra. The characters are good, there are really interesting situations and chances, but the series was so straight forward that these chances were basically lost