Rewatching "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as an Adult
Reflecting on nostalgia and reboots
Starting at age 12, I would spend my childhood summers visiting my mom in Gresham, Oregon. There, I had my own room, which was very special since I normally shared at my dad’s house.
In my private room, which was jungle-themed complete with big cat wallpaper and a leopard pillow that I would actually really like today, I had my own TV. It was maybe 10 inches and had a built-in VCR, but most importantly it had cable--otherwise known as access to everything I never knew I needed.
With remote in hand, I would surf channels at all hours of the day and night. I didn’t spend quite enough time in Gresham to make friends, so I spent a lot of time with cable television. Channels 39-42 were king of the roster, rotating through ABC Family, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. Among the Spongebobs (which I wasn’t allowed to watch at my dad’s) and the Animal Planets, I became entranced with one show in particular: Avatar: The Last Airbender.
A New Avatar
With the live action releasing recently on Netflix, I wanted to revisit my beloved Aang and the gang. I have previously watched it all the way through as an adult because I’m not sure my intermittent access to cable in the summer actually allowed me to watch the entire series (at least not that I could remember). I was eager to revisit a nostalgic show for me as I recently burned through my rewatch of The Office. I consider these shows comforting in a way that few other shows are for me. Avatar is like a childhood blanket in show form, if you will.
This led me to thinking a bit more about what it is about this show that makes me want to watch it again. Had I watched this the first time as an adult, would I still find it endearing? Would it have had the same impact? Impossible to know. Questions aside, it’s precious and comforting during the tumultuousness of adulthood. Nostalgia is strong, hence all the corporate capitalizations.
Nostalgia is for Me and You and That Exec that Wants to Make Money
There are many remakes and reboots of beloved shows, a possible representation of our need to relive happier, nostalgic memories. More cynically, they exist for the laziness of big companies to make an extra buck on something “easily” revived, no matter the success or failure of the reboot. Afterall, it can give a rush to see your favorite characters back again
doing the thing you remember them by. An echo of simpler times, even. So it would be dumb to not take advantage of that, right?
It’s also difficult to watch some of these brands seemingly go and go until something inevitably taints what we love. Though I have not watched it, the live-action movie failure of ATLA has left an intensely negative feeling in the heart of every fan. To attempt another live action when you have an audience base that has already been betrayed once, is a level of confidence or audacity that of course Netflix would be part of.
Are these revisits to happier times worth it? Perhaps. Some have exclaimed that the live action brings it to current audiences, introducing new fans. We don’t gatekeep good media here, so a bigger audience for something this beloved is fine by me. It’s more the violation and exploitation that creates crappy content that I have a problem with.
I go back and forth on reboots and remakes. I’ve experienced other anime that were rebooted and made better than the original. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and 2018’s Fruits Basket come to mind, as both started and never finished in the first making of their anime. But the finished series changed my life or were at least just fun to watch a good story get finished.
Though I have no statistical data, I do believe the R&Rs of TV are more prone to less success and less quality. It falls into the vein of “why did we make a sequel to a movie that maybe didn’t need one?”
I do want to round this out to acknowledge that maybe it’s not always about greed. There are books and series that keep going and build out the world and its stories. So there has to be people who just like to create and an audience that wants to follow along. The optimist in me has to believe that creativity deserves its place, as do the opportunities to introduce new audiences. Though perhaps another nuance, what does it mean when the original creators are not involved and what are the implications on the new creations because of that. At what point is something less a creative endeavor and more a brand that churns out content for content.
Rewatching Kids Shows as Adults
As I rewatch ATLA, I am struck by its ability to suck me into a beautiful and emotional quest of Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko. The quirky misadventures of humans that possess powers of bending the elements (water, fire, earth, and air respectively). I am quick to remember what happens each episode, a silly time riding penguins or giant koi, but watching it as an adult gives a different interpretation or perhaps more easily seen lessons and teachings that we learn from Aang and the gang.
Though emotional outbursts, lying, and hurtful words are peppered throughout a story in each episode, so are apologies with understanding what the character did wrong. It’s an opportunity to watch characters grow as they become a better friend and human in the made-up world of benders. Heavy topics like the loss of a family member (that episode of Uncle Iroh having a picnic for his deceased son still makes the eyes leak) and the finding of your chosen family. Aang, Zuko, and Toph notably travel difficult paths to find their chosen families.
I can’t help but feel like this show taught me lessons that I didn’t see at the time. As well as showing me the capabilities of a strong story with a cast of characters that I love dearly.
The comfort it brings me has it in the ranks of top shows for me. A show that can elicit a response like this is rare. And to stand the transcendence of youth into my adulthood, is even more rare. There are not a lot of cartoons from childhood that I would willingly watch and rewatch as an adult. We outgrow things, but some still have a power to bring that perfect dose of nostalgia well beyond the time of its creation.
Related Readings:
Avatar: The Last Airbender still slaps -- Glad I’m not alone in this sentiment-- And thanks for pointing out this show is now 20! years! old!
Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie -- Not to be confused with the live action, this is an all new adventure with the OG cast set in their 20s & 30s. So could this be what adult Avatar fans want? Curious how they would tackle adulthood in what was a children’s show. I already have thoughts on the adultification of ATLA in Netflix’s adaptation.
What show do you want rebooted? -- Good reboots exist! What would be a show you would like to see rebooted (and since we’re wishing, we’ll also assume that it turns out perfectly too.)