So in the spirit of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we’ve used them as a rubric to identify works of animation that echo Avatar’s themes, narrative choices, and character arcs. The chakras, in other words, are useful, as well as meaningful and beautiful, in how they illustrate Aang’s journey. “The challenge there was to make it not just an educational lesson,” DiMartino once said of the episode, “but to dramatize it and see how Aang struggles to deal with his past mistakes in order to grow, which is something people of all ages can relate to.” Positioned roughly two-thirds through Avatar’s run, “The Guru” is almost a clip show, giving both Aang and the viewers a narrative report card ahead of the second-season finale and the final season. The seven chakras serve as a thematic road map to the development of Aang and, thus, the whole series created by the episode’s credited writers, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

If you’re reading this list, odds are two things are true: (1) you just finished streaming Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix and want more, and (2) you likely remember what goes down in the show’s 39th episode, “The Guru.” It’s a classic in which Avatar Aang has a long conversation with Guru Pathik, a spiritual guide who helps him open his seven chakras, which are based, of course, on the real-world focal points for meditation. Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Nickelodeon and Netflix The Legend of Korra (left) and The Dragon Prince (right) are Avatar’s successors in the literal sense, but there are other great animated shows that also echo Avatar’s themes, narrative choices, and character arcs.

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