Katara describes how Aang outwits and defeats the dreaded Admiral Zhao and the Fire Navy, Aang tells how he comes to accept his destiny, and Prince Zuko recalls the time he once captured--and lost--the Avatar. The scroll also contains information about leaders of the Fire Nation, Firebending techniques, the spirit world, and much more.
Yes, I love all things ATLA, and I appreciate the little tidbits about each of the Four Nations, especially the philosophy and how that influences their lifestyles and fighting styles. But... I think these were a missed opportunity -- they each contain simplified retellings of episodes we've seen already, but imagine if they were told from another's perspective how much we could gain from that! For example, in the retelling of The Great Divide, what if the Earthbender guide was the one to recount the tale. If each "scroll" had at least one "outsider" viewpoint, I think it would have given them more richness. Still, I do love all things ATLA.
These are particularly great for kids (as they are simplified retellings), and the artwork as always is excellent.
First, I was surprised to realize that this isn’t a graphic novel. Something about the description made me think that it was, but I put that mistake aside and was pleased to see it was at least illustrated. However, the art was basic even if it was well-done and something about the odd formatting of the Kindle format really messed with the full effect.
Second, the stories were all things already experienced in the show and the writing was poor. It was an amateur first person format that was used with the description being simplified down. If you’re going to tell stories already seen in the show then put some effort into it.
Third, the lore bits were probably the more interesting parts of this book yet even that was a little disappointing. Most of the information was stuff already known cut down into brief bite size pieces. It told us nothing new. The information about Fire Sage Shyu was really fascinating, but even that was cut off before it got really good. I wanted to know where he went and what he did after the temple was destroyed by Avatar Roku. We could’ve had so much more interesting information about the Spirit World or the Fire Nation too. Also I disliked the implication that every single person in the Fire Nation are bad people cause that contradicts the show lore as well as some of the stories in this book.
Overall, it was just an alright read. Nothing really special or spectacular. Honestly if you want to experience these stories for the first time, I’d recommend watching the tv show first.
O.K. for kids, (can bore an adult to tears,) but my advice to any reader is to skip if you've seen the Nickelodeon series! My child liked the artwork, etc., but there wasn't very much of it.
Disappointing as compared to the other Avatar comics
The comic provides barely any new info which is not present in the original show. Covers three interesting episodes and some random trivia about the spirit world.
I mostly enjoyed this as nostalgia for the show -- I remembered the episodes they described pretty well, although I was a bit hazy on the time Aang destroyed the fire fleet by hopping. But it was fun to hear about it in the words of the characters.
Highly recommend not reading this at all. It adds nothing to the lore nor the story. If you have seen the original series, you will 100% not learn anything new in this book.
Prime freebie. Suitable for all ages. Good color illustrations. The zoom effect could use some work. Several stories from the avatar universe. And a few facts as sidebars.