Tag Archive for ‘Nickelodeon’ at AudioShocker

Thanks to my (at the time) 5-year-old nephew, I became hooked on Avatar: The Last Airbender. I showed it to Justique. She loved it. She showed it to her friends. They loved it. Then I showed it to Neal. He loved it. Now there are at least eight of us between the ages of 20-26 that have a serious Avatar addiction.

Last week’s end of Book 3: Fire has left me with mixed feelings. [SPOILER ALERT from here on out.] I think that this Avatar season culminates in a fashion that might be a bit too happy for my tastes. We’ve still got villains in the form of a demoralized former Fire Lord Ozai and a chained Princess Azula. But just about everything else ended up in a nice, neat package.

The only cliffhanger / dangling plot thread is the mystery of Zuko’s mom (and potentially Katara’s mom as well). It’s vaguely interesting, but nothing too compelling. It feels like the creative team on the show planned for three seasons and stuck to their guns even when Avatar got renewed for three more seasons (making a total of six Avatar “Books” last that I heard).

And I think it’s awesome that they stuck to their guns. Too many “great” tales have been turned to “good” or “okay” by giving into the push for an endless bevy of serialized stories that can be marketed to an exhausted audience (*ahem* Star Wars *ahem*). But this ending is so happy that I actually wish the characters were in a bit more pain. The triumphant conclusion isn’t gratifying — it actually feels hollow. Where’s the suspense?

This time last year, I was absolutely riveted by the ending of Book 2: Earth. Now I feel a bit tired of the Avatar Universe. With so many missed airdates and never-ending plot teases, my patience was beginning to wear thin before Book 3 even ended.

I also feel like Nickelodeon has severely mismarketed this property, continuing to aim it exclusively at an adolescent demographic when the stories have an obvious appeal to the Generation Y crowd.

Speaking of marketing Avatar, what’s up with the Avatar trilogy of films directed by M. Night Shyamalan? He was quoted as saying that his first film would cover both Books 1 and 2. It’s hard to imagine how he would still make a trilogy out of this presuming that Books 3 and 4 would combine to make film number two.

So what does the future hold for this franchise? Do we follow our heroes as they rebuild a diverse world that’s free from the controlling hand of the Fire Nation? Do we get to see Aang restore the Air Temples now that he’s in touch with the spirit of the nature itself (a.k.a. will he “create” new airbenders now that he can give and take bending abilities)?

I would actually be fine if this was simply the end of Avatar. It could be nice to revisit the Avatar Universe down the road when Aang’s all grown up. Or maybe Nickelodeon should skip ahead in time significantly and let the story follow the next Avatar (you know, the one that would follow Aang). I guess all I’m wondering is: have we seen the last of the Last Airbender as we know him?

EDIT: I ask and Nickelodeon answers. According to an SDCC Avatar panel from this weekend’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, Avatar: The Last Airbender was always intended to be three Books / seasons. Furthermore, it’s just a bad rumor that there are going to be six seasons of Avatar. As we know it, the show is over.

As for the Airbender movie by Shyamalan, the first film will be a direct adaptation of Book 1: Water. At the panel, creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko also said that they’re working to get an Avatar show soundtrack released.

File this in the “it might not be new, but it’s news to me” category. I just learned that Avatar: The Last Airbender, a favorite here at the AudioShocker, will finally return to close out Book 3: Fire on July 14-19, 2008.

Thanks to Avatar Spirit, check out this promo from a recent copy of Nickelodeon Magazine (that I painstakingly cleaned up in Photoshop):

According to that little blurb, July 14-18 will see a brand new episode of Avatar each night. Presumably, this run of episodes will include Chapters 14 and 15. Though they’ve been making the rounds on the Internet for a couple months now, I don’t think they’ve aired on Nickelodeon.

According to Wikipedia, Chapters 16 and 17 will air on July 17 and 18, respectively. That would leave Chapters 18-21 to air as the “special two-hour episode” on July 19. Astute Avatar fans will know that this season has 21 chapters because the hour-long Day of the Black Sun story ran for an extra episode, counting as both Chapters 10 and 11.

If Wikipedia is to be believed and Nickelodeon can be taken at their word, that means we’ll get (all episodes air at 8pm EST & PST, 7pm CST, and 9pm MST):

Book 3, Chapter 12 on Mon, July 14, 2008
Book 3, Chapter 13 on Tue, July 15, 2008
Book 3, Chapters 14-15 on Wed, July 16, 2008
Book 3, Chapter 16 on Tue, July 17, 2008
Book 3, Chapter 17 on Fri, July 18, 2008
Book 3, Chapters 18-21 on Sat, July 19, 2008

Now I’m not exactly sure how Chapter 13 counts as “new,” considering that it already aired on Nick earlier this year. But I’m not complaining. As long as we ACTUALLY get to finish Book 3 in a couple weeks, I’m fine with that.

EDIT: I just read this post on Newsarama that clarifies the air schedule of the Avatar episodes. Chapters 14 and 15 will be lumped together on Wednesday since The Boiling Rock is a two-part story. (The Newsarama post also has descriptions for each upcoming episode.)

EDIT 2: Due to a request in the comments, I got curious and I looked up airtimes for the episodes. Each night listed above will see Nickelodeon begin the episodes at 8pm EST & PST, 7pm CST, and 9pm MST. People who live in mountain time — is that normal to have your primetime TV begin at 9pm?