#objective brain knows thats fine and literally doesn't matter

[thecooler]

I wish my brain wasn't so sucks

[zkoh001]

There are children who grew up on atla, still praising it's writing, animation, and emotional storylines.

And then there's children who grew up like me, with this shitshow. And you know what? Screw it-

I loved it.

This is me ranting about this horribly flawed show that's a relic of my childhood.

It was either incredibly predictable, or batshit crazy, was riddled with plotholes, and was about a bunch of twelve year olds playing matchmaker for badly animated chinese legends that looked more like burnt out balcanic couples.

The plot happens in episode 1-5 and then 25-26. Inbetween that, it's just tomfoolery. 19 episodes of literal nothing. The people who get close to ending them are literally never the main badguys. They fix up marriages, families, (it's kinda sweet in that sense i guess...) fight the baddies (one of whom they literally HAVE to befriend- but thats just another one of the ✨plotholes✨) and run after the dragons eye, which (guided by their fortune cookie of a master) leads them in a gigantic circle back to where they came from.

The plotholes are so ridiculous that my brain started to come up with explanations that I literally just made up in my head. I remembered there being an episode with an umbrella, and I was sure that it was either used by Flamo, since y'know fire... But no, the fire element is doing just fine in the rain (despite the water element not doing well in the desert but who cares amiright) Or maybe Jinhou since water corrodes metal. But no.The umbrella was Raindrops. The water element. I can't make this up I swear.

Then there is the biggest thing that stems from the premise of the story: They need the five elements to reunite, and become the golden dragon. So why doesn't General Bu just get rid of one or two of them? He captures them regularly, and he has one stapled to his hip at all times... Why does he insist on capturing all of them? (So the show may go on i guess) In my mind, I decided that if one dies or something, the rest can revive them, but that is never even implied in the show, I'm just trying to stop my brain from imploding...

The characters are... Not smart. The only characters arguably smart are Master Yun (debatable) and Shao Yen who is in the wrong show (and sometimes Niwa I guess). I mean, it explains a lot when you know these characters are all 12, and the backstories loosely fit their personalities (by sheer accident I'm sure). Niwa was a servant, and has the strongest powers so she's reserved and nut much of a leader, but still confident, Jinhou was raised and praised by monks who knew of his importance, so hes full of himself and a bit sheltered, Randrop is an objectively worse fighter and student than Shao Yen, so he has doubts, and she in turn has this responsible big sister attitude despite not leading. Flamo acts pretty accurate for a 12 year old with fire powers and a megalomaniac for a role model. ...Why is it that only he and Raindrop gets dumb ass names, while the others get... Like, normal ones?

Last point: This show brings up some interesting ideas (by accident I'm sure) and blatantly ignores them, going out of it's way to avoid anything even remotely surface deep. General Bu, evil mastermind (with gadgets I'm sure they made up while high on drugs) is the past student of Master Yun, teacher and father figure of two of the main characters. That never even matters. It gets mentioned in episode 1 and never again. Why is he even evil? Idk, who cares. Dragon taido. What even is it? How is it different from Tiger taido, and what even is that? Is it made up by General Bu, or are there other martial arts forms? When our characters scream dragon taido, they just start using their elemental powers, and there is no difference between how Raindrop fights and how Flamo fights despite them being dragon and tiger taido novices respectively. Hell, I'm pretty sure Flamo never even says Tiger taido in the whole series, only Bu does. Grub is apparently an experiment gone wrong, but I'm not even sure if I made that up, or was a detail of the show. Thats how important it is. There's this thing where they try to juxtapose Shao Yen and Raindrops semi-healthy sibling relationship (and to a lesser extent with the other two elements), to Grub and Flamos toxic one, but that never goes any further than Grub calling for him when locked in a cupboard, and Flamo being kinda sad for a moment when he "dies".

Also: The whole Avatar ripoff thing? I don't really see it? Yes, obviously thats what inspired it, and honestly, the intro is probably the big thing people point to when saying its a fipoff and you know what, thats fair. But story wise, I don't really see it: Face it people. Master Raindrop is way to off the rails to even try to liken it to Avatar. Outside of five man band, elemental powers, and fiery -eventually redeemed -bad guy, i don't really see it (and none of that was invented by avatar, might I add). Maybe that one talk with Master Yun in episode 5, but wise, cryptic guy is also not an Avatar thing. I even saw some people say Grub is supposedly Uncle Irohs stand in..? Flamo and Grub remind me more of the wet bandits from home alone than Uncle Iroh and Zuko, but suit yourself I guess :"D

Now after saying I love this show, shitting on it for 3 and a half pages, I have only one thing to say.

Its still better than the movie.