History YMMV / AvatarTheLastAirbender

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: While it seems to be geared primarily towards the elementary- to early-middle-school set, it does boast its fair share of horror, and, especially in the third season, it deals with a series of very heavy themes. The {{Protagonist}} is the lone survivor of a genocide during which an entire culture was completely wiped out, and the 100-Year War seems to not have spared a single family from losing relatives in combat or war crimes. The StarterVillain and {{Deuteragonist}} is the victim of absolutely horrific child abuse from [[BigBad his own father]] that the series depicts without pulling any punches and is ''always'' PlayedForDrama. Ba-Sing-Se is an Orwellian dystopia where people who threaten to break its fragile illusion of peace are kidnapped by a SecretPolice and brainwashed. Some episodes in the third season even deal with an assassin hired to kill the protagonists and one of the heroes [[spoiler:setting out to kill the murderer of her mother]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: While it seems to be geared primarily towards the elementary- to early-middle-school set, it does boast its fair share of horror, and, especially in the third season, it deals with a series of very heavy themes. The {{Protagonist}} is the lone survivor of a genocide during which an entire culture was completely wiped out, and the 100-Year War seems to not have spared a single family from losing relatives in combat or war crimes. The StarterVillain and {{Deuteragonist}} is the victim of absolutely horrific child abuse from [[BigBad his own father]] that the series depicts without pulling any punches and is ''always'' PlayedForDrama. Some episodes in the third season even deal with an assassin hired to kill the protagonists and one of the heroes [[spoiler:setting out to kill the murderer of her mother]].

** Zuko is definitely this when it comes to Redemption Arcs in media.

** Zuko is considered to have one of the best Redemption Arcs in media.

%% Fan Preferred Couple: Ty Lee/Azula have been decided to not be an example, since they lack canon relationships to overshadow, which is needed to count.

** After the show was [[VindicatedByCable Vindicated By Netflix]], meaning that [[NewbieBoom a lot of newer viewers got caught up in it]], Zukka ([[HoYay Zuko/Sokka]]) has surprisingly eclipsed Zutara and Tokka almost entirely on some social media platforms. Mostly because the new fans noticed a lot of tender moments between them, [[ValuesDissonance the standards of homosexual relationships changing over time]], many of them being shippers of the highly popular Keith/Lance pairing from Netflix's ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' who see Zuko/Sokka as JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarCharacters, and both Mai and Suki being [[BaseBreakingCharacter rather controversial]]. Especially the former, with many considering Mai's and Zuko's relationship [[StrangledByTheRedString to be somewhat forced]], if they don't outright compare it to DomesticAbuse.
** Tyzula (Ty Lee/Azula) is a somewhat popular ship, particularly among fans wanting an Azula RedemptionQuest. Azula's subplot in "The Beach", where she gets [[LesYay jealous of the attention Ty Lee gets from boys]], plays a part in this.

** Due to her role in the story, viewers tend to either treat Azula as a monster who cannot be redeemed, or as a victim of mental disabilities that isn't to blame for her actions. The series really sits in the middle: she does have a mental disorder, and her father was not a positive influence on her at all, but Azula still makes choices on her own that make her an antagonist that needs to be stopped. Various episodes show her insecurities and flaws, making it clear she is a byproduct of the Fire Nations war, and other episodes show her being cruel and monstrous out of her own desire to be. The finale of the series hammers home the middle ground more by showing both sides of these, but despite that, many tend to stick to one side and view her as innocent or a monster.

** Katara mentioning her mother in general has become sort of a MemeticMututation, as fans tend to exaggerate how often she talks about her, ''especially'' in relation to conversations with Zuko. In reality, mentions of her mother take up a little over a minute of screentime in total and they are fairly spaced out over the course of the 61-episode series.

* EvilIsCool: [[TheDragon Princess Azula]] is regarded as one of the coolest characters in the series, as well as one of the most evil. Those are directly tied together ([[MagnificentBastard or rather how good she is at being evil]]).

* EvilIsCool:** [[TheDragon Princess Azula]] is regarded as one of the coolest characters in the series, as well as one of the most evil. Those are directly tied together ([[MagnificentBastard or rather how good she is at being evil]]).

* EvilIsCool:

* AssPull: A lot of people think the finale had two major ones. The first one with [[spoiler: Aang being granted energybending by the lion-turtle]] is hotly debated as to whether it was or not, with the issue mostly being accepted in concept as it fits with the lore with the timing of its implementation and lack of foreshadowing being the most controversial. The second with [[spoiler:Aang entering the Avatar state by hitting a perfectly-shaped rock as opposed to opening his chakras on his own]] is near universally considered a giant AssPull.

** Suki: When she was introduced, she was a near-unanimous EnsembleDarkhorse. But her joining the Gaang for the final battle split the fandom in half. Some are happy to see her return with more spotlight, others thought that she was just sort of thrown in without much consideration or fanfare and it wound up making her duller. Not to mention she lost her distinctive Kyoshi Warriors garb.
** Jet is an incredibly divisive character because of his radical approach to decolonization. The series portrays him as an extremist and he is eventually killed off. This rubbed many fans the wrong way because they saw Jet as a traumatised teenager who only did what he had to to survive and they thought it was bizarre that Jet was one of the only characters to die in the series while the BigBad Ozai did not. Other fans agree that Jet was in the wrong and they do not like him because of his manipulative personality.

** Season 3: Fans either consider it to be the strongest season of the three or the weakest. Most of this is directed at the rather loose first half.

** BadassNormal, PunchClockVillain, ParentService BountyHunter June..

** [[TheDragon Princess Azula]] is regarded as one of the coolest characters in the series, as well as one of the most evil. Those are directly tied together ([[MagnificentBastard or rather how good she is at being evil]]).
** Ozai. While he has nowhere as much screentime as his children, the ominous build-up to his character via flashback presents him as a truly intimidating figure. And once Season 3 kicks in, it shows that it's far from an InformedAbility, and he comes closest to giving Aang the fight of his life. The fact that he's voiced by [[Creator/MarkHamill The Joker]] helps.

** There exists a sizeable group of viewers who feel that Zuko should have killed Fire Lord Ozai with his Lightning Redirection during the Day of Black Sun, as in their mind it would have stopped the conflict. This misses the fact that Zuko makes it clear its the Avatar's job to do so, and the show heavily leans into the idea that if he did so, he'd be no better than Ozai, who plotted the death of his own father to obtain the throne. Letting Aang be the one to do so, thereby making it clear how wrong Ozai is, was the best option to avoid the war continuing and things getting worse.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** In "Jet":
--->'''Katara:''' We were following instinct.\\
'''Jet:''' [[spoiler:You'll get yourself killed that way.]]
** From "The Great Divide": "Settling feuds and making peace. All in a day's work for the Avatar." Tell that to [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise the people of Yu Dao]].
** From "The Blind Bandit": [[ForeignWrestlingHeel An Earthbending member of the Fire Nation?]] [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise Surely you jest]].
** Toph's attempt at having a "life-changing field trip with [[spoiler:Zuko]]" getting blown off, followed by her grumbling, "This is the worst field trip ever," is funny until one sees ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. What she tries to resolve is her strained relationship with her parents, and [[spoiler:the TimeSkip sequel reveals that Toph's unresolved issues with her parents bleeds into her parenting of and relationship with her own daughters. ''The Rift'', at least, shows her reconciling with her parents while ''Korra'''s third season has her making amends with her daughters.]]
** A meta example: in "The Siege of the North, Part 1", Pakku sarcastically tells one of his pupils that if they keep their performance up, they may be able to fight a sea sponge in a couple of years. The creators confirmed in a commentary that this was intended to be a friendly TakeThat towards ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', Nick's other most-popular show at the time. However, following TheNewTens, which had the SequelSeries ''Korra'' be completely ScrewedByTheNetwork at every possible opportunity [[AdoredByTheNetwork in favor of Spongebob]], this formerly lighthearted jab can seem a lot more serious/justified.
** In "The Beach":
*** Azula comments that her own mother thought she was a monster, then jokes that she was correct in thinking so. The scene becomes much less funny after the finale, where [[spoiler:Azula hallucinates Ursa showing her affection, which causes the princess to break down in tears]].
*** Ty Lee says that spending time with her friends at Ember Island is something that she will remember forever. This heartwarming line becomes cringeworthy following the events of "The Boiling Rock - Part 2", where [[spoiler:Ty Lee turns against Azula and is imprisoned in return]].

** "The Beach" has Azula hilariously, yet somewhat painfully, try to socialize and act like a normal teenager but just cannot do it for the life of her. Then, you realize that it's because of this that she prefers to use manipulation and fear to get what she wants but it also sets her up for a lifetime of misery and betrayal once those tactics don't work anymore.

%%** Many fans believe Azula to be irredeemable, despite redemption being a major theme. Iroh and Jeong Jeong were high ranking soldiers for decades in the Fire Nation before turning good, and it took Zuko three years and many major hurdles. Zuko even implies to Ozai that he could find redemption at some point. Aang himself claims no one is born evil. When it comes to Azula however, despite being only fourteen and being actively fighting for less than a year, she is held up as the one exception because of how villainous she acts, and many fans believe she was born evil. This is in spite of the restraint she shows compared to her father or Zhao, being able to capture Ba Sing Se in a relatively bloodless coup rather than a years long siege. They also ignore that Azula shares the Sozin/Roku dilemma with Zuko, and is actually shown to feel some deeply buried self-loathing over her behavior, but feels she has little choice.

** In spite of the fandom being vicious to anyone who makes the mistake of calling the franchise anime, the franchise commands a lot of respect among actual anime fans. This is due to it taking influence from some of the most influential parts of Japanese animation, such as the works of Creator/StudioGhibli. The franchise is regularly discussed casually among anime fans alongside their favorite series despite being Western-produced. Well, most anime fans anyway...there are still many who find the franchise to be mediocre compared to actual anime titles and "anime elitists" hold a superiority complex over it simply because it is not Japanese.

* [[Discontinuity/AvatarTheLastAirbender Fanon Discontinuity]]

* [[WhatAnIdiot/AvatarTheLastAirbender What An Idiot]]

** Just because someone is your family does not mean you have to unconditionally love and obey them when they abuse you or make it clear they don't care about you. True family are the people who look after you, love you unconditionally despite your faults, and are willing to die for you. How does the show demonstrate this? By making the dad of a main character a facless DarkLord ruling a genocidal empire from a throne made out of fire.

** Azula's interactions with Ty Lee, and vice versa, sometimes come off as romantic or resemble a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship but this was unintentional. Azula was manipulating Ty Lee for her own gain and Ty Lee behaved sycophantically towards Azula out of her extreme fear that Azula would harm her. When Mai betrayed Azula for Zuko, Ty Lee ''also'' betrayed Azula for Mai. Later confirmed in the comic trilogies that Ty Lee prefers Mai and is not on pleasant terms with Azula post-series. Azula is still angry at her for her betrayal and Ty Lee is naturally even ''more'' afraid of her than before. This jossed many Tyzula shipping fanworks. Still, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2GeJAvULnk their voice actresses like the ship.]] Azula's voice actress, Creator/GreyDeLisle has stated that she recognizes that a potential relationship between Azula and Ty Lee would be [[https://twitter.com/GreyDeLisle/status/1288056393610625025 abusive]]. But since this is Grey [=DeLisle=] we are talking about, [[NightmareFetishist Azula/Ty Lee being an abusive relationship just makes the pairing even more appealing to her]].

** Some fans think Aang and Katara's relationship comes off as more familial than romantic and interpreted their relationship to be a RedHerring where the two served as {{Romantic False Lead}}s for each other. This is because Katara canonically acts as the mature TeamMom to the goofy KidHero Aang, Katara's feelings for Aang are much more [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage ambiguous]] compared to Aang's obvious feelings for her, and Aang spends a lot of time angsting over how Guru Pathik said he had to "let go" of Katara to enter the Avatar State (this ended up as an AbortedArc). It doesn't help that Katara cradles Aang's body in a PietaPlagiarism shot and the WillTheyOrWontThey aspect is dragged along and beaten to death until the very end of the series finale. This is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d a couple of times throughout the series by the writers, most prominently in Ember Island Players where actress Katara says [[LikeBrotherAndSister she only loves Aang like a brother]].

** Some fans think Aang and Katara's relationship comes off as more familial than romantic and interpreted their relationship to be a RedHerring where the two served as {{Romantic False Lead}}s for each other. This is because Katara canonically acts as the mature TeamMom to the goofy KidHero Aang, and Katara's feelings for Aang are much more [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage ambiguous]] compared to Aang's obvious feelings for her. It doesn't help that Katara cradles Aang's body in a PietaPlagiarism shotand the WillTheyOrWontThey aspect is dragged along and beaten to death until the very end of the series finale. This is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d a couple of times throughout the series by the writers, most prominently in Ember Island Players where actress Katara says [[LikeBrotherAndSister she only loves Aang like a brother]].

** Some fans think Aang and Katara's relationship comes off as more familial than romantic at times as Katara acts as the mature TeamMom to the goofy KidHero Aang. The WillTheyOrWontThey aspect is dragged along and beaten to death until the very end of the series finale. This is even {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d a couple of times throughout the series by the writers, most prominently in Ember Island Players where actress Katara says she only loves Aang like a brother.

** King Bumi for being a powerful earthbender and one of the few people who Aang knew before being frozen.

The Zuko/Katara (aka "Zutara") fanbase is legendary, considerably outstripping both {{Official Couple}}s Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Maiko (Mai/Zuko) put together. The "Ember Island Players" episode [[FandomNod lampshaded this]] with an in-universe play that put Zuko and Katara together and having her refer to Aang, repeatedly, as [[LikeBrotherAndSister "like a little brother"]]. Not to mention, this couple provides the literal cover image for the trope. A long-running debate in the fandom revolved around whether the Zutara pairing becoming canon was ever even considered by the writers. One of the show's writers, John O'Bryan, [[https://twitter.com/NickRewind/status/1427632598109540353 would confirm years later that some of the writing team did push for the pairing]] on the ''Braving the Elements'' podcast, him included, but "lost that fight."