Other fandoms in comparison - What Harry Potter got Wrong, they're getting right?

[mistress_kizuna]

Okay, HP can't be the only fandom we occupy, and it's been a while since anything's been posted, so I decided to revv up a new discussion.

Now I'll admit, there are still things I love about HP and the fandom (those genuinely good parts of the books I can't let go of, really good people to chat up with, non-canon fanfiction, and a few other things

Comments

[t0ra_chan]

I think Avatar: The Last Airbender does many things you mentioned a lot better than HP.

Female characters

It has badass female characters on both sites, some can use the elements to fight (benders), others cannot. Even non-benders can be awesome fighters, be their male or female, whereas in HP non-magic users are to be pitied and ridiculed. And even the non-fighting females aren't weak wimps for the most part, but can be useful and stand up for themselves.

In episode 3 Sokka (one of the main characters) makes fun of a group of female warriors, saying the couldn't possible be real fighters. So the leader soundly kicks his ass. So what does Sokka do? He goes back, apologizes and asks to be thought by them. Shocking, I know. Admitting to be wrong? Character development? What is the world coming too?

One-dimensional villains

Apart from from Firelord Ozai, all the villains in Avatar are more than one-dimensional bad guys. Prime example is Azula, who is a psycho bitch, but still so awesome and an actual threat to the good guys that you can't help but find her cool.

Badly done human psychology

Avatar also beats HP there, prime example is Prince Zuko, exiled prince of the Fire Nation (the bad guys who started a war, a real war I might add). Throughout the seasons we see him go from bad to good, becoming a better person and learning what his destiny is. But not without struggles and him mucking things up along the way.

Black-and-white morality

Even though the Fire Nation are the bad guys, it's not so easy or black and white. There are good guys in the Fire Nation (heck, most are just normal people) and bad guys in the other nations like Jet, Long Feng or Hama.

Uninteresting/Badly done romantic subplots

Thankfully romance in Avatar is kept to a minimum (the target audiences are 7 - 10 year old boys after all), but the ones that are there don't make you roll your eyes or offend you like HP does. Even the Zuko/Mai ship that came out of the blue and had many people hating it, improved a lot in the last two episodes. Also the romances are not simply told to us, but *gasp* shown.

[reddi_whipped]

I love Sokka! He gets some of the best moments; from the pure comedy: cactus juice, the haikus, feverish attempt at bending (take that, you rock!) to the serious: his wanting to prove himself a true warrior, the doomed romance with Princess Yue. The writers should get praised from making him so versatile instead of the one-note sidekick he could have been.
Other fandoms I like: Still enjoy X-Men Evolution. I might cover some of the other points later for now I'll just talk a bit about morals.

Black-and-white morality
The Brotherhood gets some nice development, Lance in particular grows from an angry theiving punk to a responsible leader and more anti-hero than villain. Episodes like "Survival Of The Fittest", "Joyride", "Mainstream", "No Good Deed" and the two-part finale really spotlight his moral conflicts. While he usually WANTS to do the right thing, he doesn't always succeed in doing so and his morals are quite a bit looser than the X-Men. Ex: In one ep Kelly has sent the government after the mutants whose identities have just been revealed. While on the run, the Brotherhood and X-Men work together (with mixed results). At one point Lance uses his earthquake powers to slow down their pursuers and Scott barks back that the aftershock might have hurt those people. Lance retorts that "they were shooting at us". In his mind, it was ok to defend himself even it meant damage to 'innocent' people. Whereas Scott feels that using powers against non-mutants is never justified.
Even Charles Xavier is not perfect. He fails to recruit Toad to his cause who is frightened by the Danger Room's malfunction. Many of his students are pulled from the campus after their identities are leaked, as the parents believe he cannot adequately protect them. Even his expertly designed security system was unable to keep Mystique from hacking into Cerebro's files and learning many secrets. "Sins Of The Son" in particular highlights his failed relationships and how his vision of the peaceful co-existence of humans and mutants cost him his love life. To say nothing of how Juggernaut and Magneto feel about him, and how much of it he brought on himself...