TV Show: Avatar: The Last Airbender

[InfinityMax]

If you like cartoons, you should be watching Avatar. If you don't like cartoons, you should still be watching Avatar, because it will change your mind.

I'll run down the synopsis, in case I'm the only dude watching this most amazing cartoon.

So there are four nations - Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Special people, called benders, can warp the elements of their home nation. The avatar is special, though - he has the capacity to learn bending from all four nations.

So the Fire Nation goes all rogue and starts conquering the globe, and they're very bad. Only the avatar can stop them - but he has disappeared completely. Two kids find the last airbender - the new avatar - and convince him to help them defeat the Fire Nation. Only the new avatar is a kid, and he has to grow up and learn all the bending from other nations before he can confront the Fire Nation.

The thing that makes this the greatest cartoon ever is that this is all kung fu action theater. The fight scenes will make your jaw drop. Battles are a mix of weapon fighting and bending, with flames shooting from one opponent's hands and a steel boomerang deflecting the blast, as the avatar leaps from rooftop to rooftop with lightning blowing off the roof tiles. It's intensely exciting.

Plus there's more character development in this show than in 95% of the novels you'll read these days. One bad guy, accompanied by his uncle, has a tremendous crisis of faith, and may wind up being an ally to the avatar (though this remains to be seen). The avatar himself starts as a dopey kid, and develops into a rather insightful young man - unless you muzzle his air bison, and then all bets are off. There is tragedy, betrayal, conspiracy, love and hope.

Seriously. Watch this cartoon. It'll blow your mind.