❝Avatar is none of those things. It’s Buffy for kids, a most humble and far-ranging messianic roman à clef, a Jungian masterwork. Presenting a coherent mythology that’s been thrown out of balance, the show’s three seasons take its child-Buddha protagonist around the world, dealing with questions of regime destabilization one week and the personal impulses behind imperialist movements the next, all without losing an essential joy or compassion that is another reason it’s one of the most powerful and healing stories you can ever hear. Multiple times, honestly. It’s got it all: Meta-episodes with puppet shows within the story telling the story, island getaways where the show’s teen villains drift about in anomie and clamdiggers, exploring their parental issues and sibling rivalries; an all-girl military force in kabuki makeup; a teen antihero who spends his days pursuing the Avatar in a mindless hunt for vengeance but at night becomes a justice-obsessed Batman figure. A little blind girl who is a total bitch but also a karate master. Spooky old ladies, a very terrible spider demon I can’t even talk about… It’s a show about everything, in a very real sense. It takes you over; it alters your DNA.