As the quintessential example of storytelling that engages both children and adults, Avatar: The Last Airbender demonstrated an unprecedented ability to play with its audience's emotions. Whether they're crying or cheering, fans can engage with the show across the emotional spectrum, and that even goes for the frights and scares most often reserved for the horror genre.
This was demonstrated perfectly in Book 3's "The Puppetmaster," which stands out as a master class in telling a scary story, and may just be the best Halloween episode in TV history.
Originally airing in November of 2007, "The Puppetmaster" begins with Aang, Toph, Katara and Sokka sitting around a campfire telling scary stories. It's clear from the start that this episode is set up with spooky overtones appropriate for the holiday, but what most first-time viewers cannot expect is just how effectively it will draw them in. When the Gaang meets a frail old lady named Hama in the woods and learn there have been disappearances in the local village every full moon, it's easy to roll your eyes.
However, it becomes a lot less easy the more engaging the story gets, seemingly sidetracking from its Halloween-esque aesthetic as the audience learns that Hama is the only other surviving Waterbender outside of Katara from the Southern Water Tribe. This is a massive moment for Katara's character, and the subsequent lessons in waterbending are so engaging that viewers let your guard down. Of course, that's when it's revealed Hama is actually a bloodbender, manipulating the water in her victim's veins to puppeteer them.
This dark turn is as gruesome as it is clever. It goes without saying that children's shows have an extremely limited amount of violence or gore that they can depict, but by using the tool of bloodbending, the show was able to convey a concept whose true horror lies more in the imagination than in the show itself. At the same time, it's all brought together with an engaging look into the ruined psychology of a former war prisoner, the toxic effect of her desperate desire for revenge and a foil for the series' heroes that draws a clear line for them between right and wrong.
Avatar has never been afraid to consider the villain's perspective, and "The Puppetmaster" fully embodies that tradition. Whereas most Halloween specials suffer from a jarring divergence in tone from their series, or else the general aesthetic of the show is already so firmly within the horror genre it becomes hard to differentiate, "The Puppetmaster" manages to strike all the right balances. It advances the overarching plot of the show, delivers on the expectations of a seasonal special and creates a self-contained masterpiece just as effective in March as in October.
Avatar was always able to break new boundaries and continues to do so with its new stories, but there are certain episodes that stand out above the rest. "The Puppetmaster" is an example of this, and as a Halloween special, it just pulls all the right strings.
