The 10 best episodes of Avatar: the Last Airbender, ranked

7. Avatar Roku: Winter Solstice, Part 2

Up until this episode, the gang was making their way to the North Pole and having side adventures in places like Omashu and Kyoshi island. But this is the first time where the larger scope of the series comes into focus. While Aang makes a brief connection with the spirit Haibi in the previous episode, “Winter Soltice Part 2” shows Aang establish direct communication with Roku, the man who was Avatar before him, for the first time.

During his brief time in the spirit world, Aang is shown the location of a temple dedicated to Roku. This is where Aang needs to go to contact Roku during sunset on the Winter Solstice. After evading Zuko and Commander Zhao’s fleet, the gang successfully finds the island, where they are attacked by a group of fire sages. A sage named Shyu betrays the others and helps the group get to the temple’s hidden sanctuary, where Aang can speak to the former Avatar.

As the sun sets, Roku and Aang speak for the first time, and Aang’s focus for the rest of the series becomes clearer. Roku explains that a comet passes over the world every hundred years and that it gives firebenders unimaginable power for a time. The last time it came, Fire Lord Sozin used the comet to begin attacking the rest of the world. Roku tells Aang that the comet is returning in less than a year, and that he must defeat Fire Lord Ozai before it arrives. It normally takes decades for an Avatar to master the four elements, and at this point, Aang has only ever bended air and water. This conversation establishes how high the stakes are, and gives the heroes a clear, daunting goal.

By the time the Avatars are done speaking, Zhao and his men are at the temple waiting. With dozens of firebenders ready to attack, Roku, acting through Aang, fends off the soldiers and destroys his temple in a truly badass display of lava-bending. Aang inadvertently used the Avatar state a couple times prior to this episode, but this is the first time we see just how powerful it can be. It could give him the ability to channel previous lives, and use the powers they mastered centuries prior.