7 Reasons Why Avatar: The Last Airbender Is The Most Complete TV Show Ever

The greatest shows have stories with the highest stakes. Over the years we have been treated to many an epic where good battles evil with the fate of cities, worlds, galaxies, universes and even multiverses hanging in the balance.

Unfortunately a lot of these shows tend to fall at the final hurdle. Sometimes they raise their villains to such a level of invincibility, the eventual triumph of the good guys often has to ride on the back of plot holes and logic gaps. Other times the writers create so many layers to the plot, they are unable to undo all the narrative knots at the end, leaving viewers feeling short changed for having invested in them.

Very rarely does a show manage to build up a massively high stakes scenario, successfully tie up every narrative thread at the end and manage to finish it with an epic blow off. The Last Airbender did all this and then some; from the Boy in the Iceberg to Sozen’s Comet Part 4, the story kept building and building with the implications becoming greater with each season.

What’s even more astounding is that every single sub-thread, even every single mention of a plot device, was later followed up and led to something.

In the end, it built to a crescendo and culminated with that unforgettable final sequence of battles. And when Aang finally took away Ozai’s Bending to end it once and for all, every single person watching could not help but smile in delight. The victory was the viewer’s as much as it was the characters’, for having been a part of this epic journey.