25 moments Netflix’s remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender MUST get right

A Trip to the Beach

Any good TV series — animated or live-action — is made better by delving into the psyches of its villains, and The Last Airbender does exactly that in Book Three’s “The Beach.” Of course, the show manages to do it with humor, something that’s made easier by the fact that the majority of its villains are still teenagers.

When Zuko, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai aren’t chasing around the Avatar, they enjoy the occasional vacation. Or at least they try to enjoy it This episode shows them heading to Ember Island, where they’re supposed to act like regular teens. Naturally, that isn’t how things go down. Instead, fans are treated to moment after hilarious moment of Azula and Zuko trying and failing to fit in with people their own age, which is bound to happen when you spend most of your time conquering cities and trying to please a father with a god complex and the power to back it up.

The comedy of “The Beach” is probably its greatest achievement, but that’s closely followed by its willingness to look at each of these characters as fully formed individuals. By the end of the episode, the teenagers are venting their frustrations with the world to one another, revealing what makes them tick. They reveal they’re more than just a bunch of villains being evil for the sake of it, which makes the conclusions of their arcs all the more satisfying.