Why Every Game of Thrones Fan Should Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender

Finally, Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) was added to Netflix today. Put simply, it’s a show about a young boy, destined to master the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air, who journeys with his friends to defeat an evil lord bent on taking over the world. A huge fan community can celebrate as their beloved series is showcased to the masses, and as someone who’s watched it through twice more since buying it on Blu-Ray, I happily recommend it to everyone and anyone.

But that’s not usually enough for most people, and I can completely understand that. So, I’m here to compare two of my favorite shows and argue exactly why fans of the hugely popular Game of Thrones should give Avatar their attention. The world, characters, and storylines are all incredibly impactful in both series, and are largely why both are remembered so fondly (and I’ll even get into how ATLA does all of these better).

To get the elephant out of the room quickly, Avatar’s ending is fantastic. It ties up loose ends, creates a couple more that get explored in graphic novels, and the four-episode finale is handled masterfully by the creative and story teams. If you hated the way Thrones left you feeling, you can leave those qualms behind here.

The worlds of both shows come into the forefront quickly. Thrones begins grim and dark, showing a medieval country with fantastical elements and grows from there. ATLA’s first two episodes perfectly set everything up, giving context to the situation our world and characters are in and explaining the rules of it all. And this is where two paths get to diverge.

Game of Thrones’s fantasy elements give it both a wondrous sense of mystery and uncertainty. We often didn’t know exactly what was going on and as revelations came over its run, sometimes the world became clearer and sometimes it got more confusing. Time travel, magic, zombies, and more crowded the scene and ended up muddying the waters just a bit. It technically made sense in the context of the show, and we get these ideas, so it’s second nature to accept them, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

This is where Avatar gets to shine, though. The rules are simple. Four nations, earth, fire, water, and air, exist across the globe. Some people in each nation can control one of the elements as a genetic trait. One hero, the Avatar, reborn across generations, has the ability to control all four elements, and is always tasked with keeping peace among the four nations. Some other elements relating to spirits are taken from eastern tradition, but that’s it. Its simplicity lets both the audience and the creators play with what can be done, and what powers are born and can grow from it all. Nothing ever feels out of place or preposterous.

Characters are at the heart of every great show, and both Thrones and ATLA create memorable and relatable heroes and villains. What these shows have in common too, is that they both take place during a large-scale war, and often focus on how that affects the people in and around it. The enormous scale of Game of Thrones gave us the ability to meet dozens of heroes and follow their journeys often from beginning to end. There are so many to meet and everyone has a favorite among them all.

Avatar has an obvious main focus on the Avatar himself, Aang, and his friends Sokka, Katara, and eventually Toph. But what the show does so well is branch out further over time. We get to know the villains better, memorable side characters steal episodes, and often they return to give them more depth. Everyone has set goals and motivations, and those get to change over time, as they all grow. We see new facets of everyone as the show goes on and their skill sets and knowledge expand. Every ATLA fan has a favorite character too, and I can guarantee you their reasons are mostly tied not to who they are at the start, but who they became at the end.

Storylines come from a combination of the characters we meet and the world they live in. It’s an essential part of any show’s success, no matter the genre. Game of Thrones has some of the best stories in the business. From single episode adventures to season-spanning arcs, the best episodes of Thrones are culminations of stories we’ve been following for so long, or big hits that make a single episode so impactful to the series as a whole. It’s what kept me rewatching the show so often, and why so many people stuck around until the series’s end.

As Avatar only has three seasons, its few overarching stories last a whole season or the whole series. What makes most of its stories impactful is how they’re so perfectly compressed into 22-minute episodes. Many of my favorite (and fan favorite) episodes of ATLA are stories confined to a single episode of the show, showcasing a single character’s journey through a well-crafted story. They rely on character moments and the interplay they have with the world around them. The series arc is just as compelling, and it doesn’t feel rushed, even though it’s a short run overall. It comes with time, planning, and a whole bunch of build-up.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is loved by its fans for many reasons. I grew up with it on TV, and it shaped a lot of the ways I think about other TV shows. Its teenage characters are treated like adults, and so is the show’s audience, a hallmark of great young-adult television. It’s a breeze to watch over the course of a week, and I can even tell you from experience that it’s hard to put down once you get going. Game of Thrones proved that high-concept fantasy television could succeed for mass audiences, and Avatar is the perfect place to go for fans who are clamoring for something more.