Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko discussed how filler played into the show's continuity and commented on the show's most criticized filler episode: "The Great Divide."
On an episode of the podcast Avatar: Braving the Elements, titled "Origin Stories with Mike DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko Pt. 2," the two talked about how they had committed to continuous storytelling "before it was a thing," but that the priority was that each episode contains a beginning, middle and end. This, according to DiMartino, didn't always satisfy fans. "If there was an episode that didn't 100 percent move the overall plot forward, it was like oh, it's suddenly a filler episode -- forget that episode. And I was like, what is this filler? It's all part of the story, guys."
Janet Varney, one of the co-hosts of the podcast and voice of Korra from series sequel The Legend of Korra, mentioned that even the Season 1 episode "The King of Omashu" was considered filler, despite DiMartino's comments that the episode was "super crucial," since it introduced Bumi. He mentioned that the most famous "filler" episode of the series was "The Great Divide," which saw Aang and his team escorting two groups through a canyon, attempting to have them work together despite their century-old rivalry. "Which I'll give them, I'll say that's pretty 'filler-y,'" DiMartino said.
"That's terrible," Konietzko said. "You've got this big gap, it's a big empty hole, yet it is filler." Co-host Dante Basco (who voiced Zuko on the original series) mentioned that he'd grown to like the episode -- to which Konietzko replied, "Yeah, I was not happy with it. But even the episodes I wasn't as stoked on, there were always moments that I really liked." He mentioned the various versions of the story and the game played at the end, as well as the canyon crawlers, which he called a "cool, creepy animal" featured in the show.
Konietzko continued that his main goal with the series was just to reach the finish line -- that he and DiMartino had pitched the show with a beginning, middle and end and only wanted to see it to completion. While Konietzko commented that there was "so much" he would fix if he had the resources, he also bemoaned the fans that pointed out every continuity error in the show's animation, suggesting that producing a complete show was harder than it seemed.
All three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender are streaming now on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Paramount+.
Source: Spotify, via ComicBook.com
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