Avatar: The Last Bill Changer
When Eli 5.7 was so sick a few weeks ago, we happened to see an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon.It only took one episode to hook both of us completely.
It's not really anime, because it's American, but they use some of the same techniques and conventions. The writing is very strong, with an epic story arc that focuses on honor, friendship, and sacrifice. And it's very funny at times.
I can't tell how much I would enjoy this show without Eli--it's hard to separate that out--but watching it with him is a blast. He's fascinated by the story and the characters, and he's totally lost all interest in Power Rangers as a result.
Which is a good thing, because Power Rangers suck. They're completely one-dimensional, and stupid to boot. Avatar is a pretty carefully crafted series, and it's very thoughtful.
The world's population consists of four tribes: earth, air, fire, and water. Certain people in each tribe have the ability to "bend" their tribe's element and are called benders. In each generation, one person can master all four bending disciplines. This person is called the Avatar, and he is reincarnated each time he dies.
The Avatar in the current generation is a twelve-year old boy named Aang, and his destiny is to save the world from the Fire Nation, which has become immensely powerful and is trying to take over the other tribes (thus ruining the balance of the world).
Sure, a lot of that is a combination of plot elements that are a bit shopworn, but the show does it in a very cool way, and each tribe uses moves taken from a separate martial arts discipline. And the characters are not cardboard cutouts at all--it's very impressive how many characters are given significant backstories as the episodes progress.
Like I said, Eli is totally riveted by this show, and when the benders are doing something, he always gets off the couch and imitates their movements. Plus he's come up with a very complicated explanation for why he's actually an airbender.
That's a long run-up to this story, but I wanted to mention how excellent the show is and how much fun it is to watch. If your kids are stuck on the world of suck that is Power Rangers, try Avatar instead.
Gloria and Eli went to the park yesterday, and when they came home, Eli was absolutely bouncing off the walls. He was as hyper as I've ever seen him.
"Did you take him to a park or a meth lab?" I asked Gloria.
"And he ran around the whole time he was in the park," she sighed.
We put on an episode of Avatar and sat down to watch. During one scene, Eli 5.7 said, "If I had a wish, I'd wish for a million dollars."
"But what about people who need help?" I asked. "Wouldn't wishing to help them be better?'
"I'm pretty sure a million dollars is better, Dad," he said patiently.
"What about your friends?" I asked. "What would they do?"
"Dad, they don't talk about that at school," he said, again patiently.
"Well, if you're not willing to sacrifice, you can't be the Avatar," I said.
Eli jumped off the couch and assumed a "bender" pose. "Money means NOTHING to me," he said.
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