Lore is an important aspect of any piece of entertainment. It doesn’t matter if you have great characters, music, or plot. You have to create a world and live in that world and discover new things about it as you go along. You need to know its history, but you create its future along the way. Although the rest of Nickelodeon ignored this, Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have created such a world. While Avatar: The Last Airbender may be considered a “kid’s show”, it actually has a deep, rich world along with ideas of philosophy and religion. Students such as sophomore Brian Ferris, his older brother senior Andrew Ferris and sophomore Alissa Hartman, all say “It’s the best show ever!” Alissa talked about how her brother was a fan of the show, and her mother made her watch it with him. Eventually, she was hooked. This show is great because it has a morale and a theme in each episode. Now, it is not a, “What did YOU learn today?” theme. It is more subtle. An amazing thing about this show is that your brain is not being degraded like with other trash on TV. *cough*JerseyShore! *cough*. Yeah, I am really glad that show is over.

If you do not know what Avatar is, let me give a basic explanation. There are four nations: The Water Tribe, The Earth Kingdom, The Fire Nation, and The Air Nomads. Each of these nations is home to people who can “bend” the one of the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air. Every generation, there is an “Avatar” who can bend all four elements and is the bridge to the mysterious “Spirit World”. One hundred years before the beginning of the show, the Fire Nation was preparing to go to war against the other nations with their advanced mechanized machines to “spread their prosperity with the rest of the world”. They were able to kill all of the Air Nomads, well almost all of them. One hundred years later, waterbender Katara and her non-bender brother Sokka discover a boy named Aang trapped in an iceberg in the Southern Water tribe. They find out that, not only he is the last airbender, but that he is the Avatar. However, the Avatar does not automatically know how to bend all of the elements. He has to be trained in each and master all of them. Aang has already master airbending, but he still needs to master water, earth, and fire (this one will obviously cause some problems). So, the rest of the series is following Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Appa (Aang’s flying six-legged bison) as they travel the world looking for masters to teach Aang all of the elements, while the infamous banished prince Zuko of the fire nation hunts them down to regain his honor.

This show isn’t just for kids. Teenagers, adults, anyone can enjoy this beautifully crafted cartoon. If you want a show with an enriching, exciting story to tell please check out this show on either Netflix, Nicktoons, or buy it on DVD. However, here’s a bit of advice. What is it about these other Nickelodeon shows that make them so bad? Andrew Ferris says they are “immature” and sophomore Austin Pestello says they are “horrible.” So, what could other Nickelodeon shows be doing to be as successful as Avatar has? Some simple things they could work on are character development, voice acting, and perhaps the most important thing: to not be afraid to go into some “shady” areas. For instance, Avatar isn’t afraid to talk about subjects like murder, genocide, terrorism, religion, political corruption, etc. Now, it is much easier to see that Avatar is a show for teens and adults as well as children. In fact, it is probably more suited for teens and adults. Also, be sure to check out the Legend of Korra, the sequel to this series, which will have its second season coming out soon. See? Not every Nickelodeon show is that bad.