Storytime With Venessa: Avatar The Last Airbender – The Promise Part 1

It’s time for another episode of Storytime With Venessa! In this installment, Venessa and I will share our thoughts on Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise Part 1, which takes place a year after the events of the cartoon series.


The Hundred Year War is over.  To bring balance back to the world and to make things right with the Earth Kindgom, Fire Lord Zuko, along with Avatar Aang, are overseeing the removal of all Fire Nation colonies that settled in the Earth Kingdom during the war.  It's not an easy task.  Citizens of the Fire Nation are being asked to leave their homes, their livelihoods behind.  Many have never set foot in the Fire Nation before.  The new Fire Lord must balance out his commitment to do what is right for both the Earth Kingdom and his own people.


Below is Venessa expressing her thoughts and I will follow up with mine.

Take it away, Venessa!

   

My thoughts: I really like where they are going with this. I see hints of what is to come that sets up events for The Legend Of Korra. Even with the fun, teenage antics, there is a very serious side to this tale. It's the end of The Hundred Year War and it's dealing with reconstruction and how to handle the Fire Nation colonies that settled and developed deep roots in the Earth Kingdom. We also have a new Fire Lord who wants to do what is right but is still inexperienced when making decisions that will affect an entire nation.  It's some pretty heavy stuff for these young people to deal with.


I think my only critique is that we don't see how much Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph have really grown.  It has only been a year and we do know that Aang and Katara have been helping to relocate Fire Nation citizens.  But we don't really get to see how the war has affected or changed them.  I'm hoping we will get to see this in Parts 2 and 3.  We do get to see how it has affected Zuko and the pressure he is under as the new Fire Lord.  Zuko has been known to wrestle with what he knows is right and what is expected of him.  Now we get to see it under a whole new set of circumstances.  It's all still very engaging and entertaining and keeps you wanting more.  The artwork is great, the characters look just like they do from the cartoon but just different enough to show that some time has passed.  There is also the comedy balanced out with the depth that I've come to expect from this series.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what's next in Part 2.