Avatar: The Last Airbender was a popular animated show on Nickolodeon in the mid-00’s. The series depicted a fantasy world based on a blend of European, Asian, and Native American influences inhabited by “benders” who could manipulate a single one of the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air. In every generation an Avatar is born who can bend all bend all four elements. In this episode we do a deep dive into this series. We talk about the characters and why we enjoy or don’t each of them. We discuss the world and the story and what things we really enjoyed and anything that we didn’t. Along the way we also get into discussions of cultural sensitivity, the live action film, and whether we think that a live-action adaptation can ever faithfully capture this series.
Due to time constraints there is no five-minute controversy this week.
This week Juliette; Mike; and newcomer, Rachel, join the cast.
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Over 65 years ago, Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings epic was published and literature would never be the same. That one work changed the way that fantasy literature was written and received by the public. It propelled a quiet academic into the public eye and has spawned a plethora of adaptations, interpretations, and imitations. In this episode and the three that follow we take a look at Tolkien’s life and the influences that helped inform his writing style. We’ll also talk about his many books and works, including those published posthumously, and we’ll discuss the various animated and live-action adaptations. 
Last year, fans of 80’s cartoons were surprised and delighted to learn that Netflix and Dreamworks would be teaming up to bring Voltron back to the small screen. This week we look at Voltron: Legendary Defender to decide if it’s a worthy successor to the original series. We discuss the characters and plots and what we think worked and what we think didn’t. We also talk about what things might mean and where the storyline is headed. 
In this episode 