Don't knock it until you try it!

I feel a little guilty about the way I see Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I count the show as my favorite TV series ever. Even as an adult, I'm impressed with how the showrunners used Aang's journey to defeat the Fire Nation to stitch together a whole fabric of a world affected by violence and injustice. Its characters' stories, such as the birth of Prince Zuko, become vehicles for creating a narrative that is at once political and personal. Just the mention of Avatar can trigger a stream of positive thoughts about why I love the series and want more. But even with all that said, I struggle to bring myself to watch a large majority of the show every time I rewatch it, and I end up skipping a lot of it. Returning to the series, I start from book 2, episode 6, an episode called "The Blind Bandit."

This is where I admit – somewhat embarrassingly – that I've started three rewatches from this exact point in the series. At first it didn't start out as a conscious choice. I would rewatch that particular episode because I've always loved Toph as a character and just wanted to rewatch the episode where she joins the gang. I loved the action sequences and the excitement that came with seeing Toph in action for the first time, but I also appreciated how she breaks free from her parents' idea that she is a helpless child. The thing is, once you get on the Avatar rewatch train, even if it's just for that episode, it's kind of hard to get off.