Netflix's adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been highly anticipated by fans since its announcement in 2018. With the original animated series being held in such high regard, expectations were sky-high for this live-action rendition.
I felt good when the original show's creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino were announced as executive producers. But those feelings of excitement were immediately shattered when the creative duo departed from the project in 2020 and founded Avatar Studios. After viewing all eight episodes of the remake, I understand why they left, because even though I don't consider the Netflix version to be unwatchable, it lacks a certain charm present in the original, and it lacks consistency in its writing.
Now that all eight episodes have been released, it's time to dive into each one and evaluate how they measure up. Join me as we rank Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes based on their execution, faithfulness to the source material, character portrayal, and overall impact.
8. Episode 3, "Omashu"
The third episode in the series takes us to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, which is run by Aang's 113-year-old friend King Bumi. While I'm not as critical as others about this version of Bumi, this episode is last on this list for other reasons. While I respect the creators wanting to include original characters from the Nickelodeon show, this episode featured an unnecessary amount of people in a confusing spider web of circumstances.
Don't get me wrong, I thought the portrayals of Jet and the Mechanist were pretty spot-on. Both are charming on the outside with a deeper layer of cynicism on the inside, which is true to their original appearances. But I can't shake the feeling that the writers were on this weird crusade to make sure the remake didn't feel like an "adventure of the week" kind of series, but they still wanted to include characters who appeared in adventure-of-the-week-type episodes from the original show, so they crammed them into this confusing Omashu story. It felt rushed, unnecessary and messy.
In hindsight, a scene in the beginning of this episode was one of the most frustrating in the whole season. While Katara is trying to learn to perform the water whip, a waterbending move, Aang gives her some advice that doesn't help. Then they're like, "oh well I guess we'll figure it out when we find a teacher at the Northern Water Tribe." Aang is also very hesitant to even attempt waterbending, which makes no sense because as the Avatar, the one person alive who can bend all four elements, that should be the one thing he's trying to figure out right now.
One of the biggest flaws in the show's writing is that Aang doesn't learn one lick of waterbending in this season and he's constantly talking about how he's a bad learner. It's a weird departure from the original show where Aang shows natural ability to learn waterbending and is very eager to try. Because he needs to learn to bend all the elements if he wants to carry out his duty as the Avatar and put a stop to the century-long war waged by the Fire Nation. The Netflix show even fails to deliver on its own promise of him learning at the Northern Water Tribe, which just doesn't happen for some reason.
7. Episode 8, "Legends"
That's right, the finale of the season was one of my least favorite episodes. And the most disappointing part is the culmination of Aang's character arc, or lack thereof. Throughout the season, Aang has been learning about his destiny from previous Avatars, who have been telling him to learn the four elements and save the Northern Water Tribe from destruction.
But after spending the entire season procrastinating his waterbending lessons — even though he's traveling with a waterbender, mind you — when he gets to the Northern Water Tribe, he doesn't learn any waterbending despite waterbendings all around him. Yes, there was a Fire Nation invasion days away, but at the end of the episode the group decides to leave the place where all the waterbenders are even though Aang hasn't learned anything.
These are fairly minor parts of the episode but they stand out to me as colossal writing mistakes. It made this version of Aang feel much less like a naturally gifted Avatar like we were told in the beginning of the show, and more like an impetuous child who just gets lucky a lot.
6. Episode 5, "Spirited Away"
"Spirited Away" sees team Avatar journey into the spirit world for a somewhat interesting adventure. But this episode continues the annoying trend of things happening in this show for the sake of them happening. For example, when Aang meditates into the spirit world, he brings Katara and Sokka with him on accident. The show's explanation for this is the line from Aang where he says, "Somehow I brought you with me." This is another thing that could have been a straight adaptation from the original show, where the spirit Hei Bai kidnaps Sokka along with people from a nearby village. Why not have Hei Bai take Sokka and Katara into the spirit world instead of breaking the original canon rules about who and how someone can enter the alternate dimension?
This would have given Hei Bai more of a role, because in the live-action show he basically just has a cameo. Even though villagers are being kidnapped, it's unclear if Hei Bai was the one taking them, because Aang rescues them from a different spirit named Koh later on. That begs the question: why was Hai Bai even included if Koh was going to be the main adversary of this arc anyway? I chuck all of this into the massive bucket of sloppy writing mistakes that are way too prevalent in this show.
The set-up aside, I think the meat of this episode is pretty good. Katara and Sokka have to face their most painful memories and their character arcs improve because of it. Koh makes Katara relive the day her mother died, which has been holding back her waterbending abilities all season. Katara grows as a character and becomes more powerful because of this vision from Koh. Meanwhile, Sokka is forced to relive the day he heard his father Hakoda talk behind his back about him being an incapable leader. I think this was a great set-up for Sokka to gain more confidence in his leadership abilities; unfortunately, I don't think the show did a good job paying this off before the season concluded.
5. Episode 4, "Into the Dark"
This episode features a great additions to this show: more conversations between Aang and Iroh of the Fire Nation. The fact that they speak at all shows Iroh has more nuance and empathy than a lot of other people from the Fire Nation, which is important for later in the story. During this conversation, Iroh tells Aang that he owes his nephew Zuko more than Zuko owes him, prompting an incredible flashback scene to the funeral of Iroh's son Lu Ten. Lu Ten was Iroh's only son and the loss devastated him. As Iroh sat inconsolable by his son's casket, Zuko was the only one who gave him any comfort in his time of need. This scene solidified the fact that the additions to the Fire Nation characters were the best source material change this remake had to offer.
As for Aang's encounter with King Bumi, it felt weird. The entire time, Bumi is telling him that the world is suffering. Year after year, he has had to make tough decisions to preserve his city. Then Aang apologizes for not being around for the last hundred years, but he's here now and he's going to make the most of it. This scene feels worse the second time around because I know in the last episode Aang is not comfortable with the fact that he missed the last hundred years, which is contrary to the conversation he has with Bumi here.
4. Episode 7, "The North"
The budding relationship between Sokka and the Northern Water Tribe princess Yue was the crown jewel of this episode, which says a lot considering I should be more excited about the team finally making it to the North Pole. Katara's arc is fairly similar to what it was in the original show in that the Northerners won't let her practice waterbending because she's a girl. I liked the duel she has with Master Pakku, which was strikingly similar to the animated version but still looked pretty good in my opinion.
But again, Aang and his arc continue to grind my gears. He is labeled useless by Master Pakku, who was expecting him to have learned something by the time he made it to the North. And I was too. He shows up empty-handed without any waterbending experience. If Katara had at least taught him the basics before they arrived, I would have liked a scene of Pakku giving him a rundown of more advanced techniques before the Fire Nation invaded. Give me some sort of progression for Aang so he doesn't look like a complete fool all the time.
I guess Aang was banking on Avatar Kuruk teaching him something, but Kuruk turns out to be a bit useless because of permanent spirit damage to his body. This blocks him from taking control of Aang through the Avatar state like Kyoshi did earlier in the season. These things may seem little, but they damage Aang's character a lot and make me feel unsatisfied with his character arc. Aang certainly felt incapable in the animated show, but he always tried. The live-action version of Aang has less ambition and drive.
3. Episode 1, "Aang"
The first 20 minutes of this episode are among my favorite scenes in the entire show. We get a first-hand look at Fire Lord Sozin and his dastardly efforts to start the 100-year war. Him leading the invasion of the Southern Air Temple was arguably the coolest addition from the original animated show. The fact that he personally killed Monk Gyatso just adds insult to injury.
I also think that the show did a great job explaining everything. It's easy for fans of the original show to just jump in, but it's easy for us to forget there is a lot of detail in this world. While some people aren't fans of exposition dumps, I think the one Avatar Kyoshi delivers at the beginning of this episode was necessary to get newcomers up to speed.
Once we get to the main plot 100 years after Sozin, it's fine... I generally enjoy how faithful the story's commencement is to the original, but it did feel a bit rushed. In the span of 40 minutes, Aang wakes up in the iceberg, meets Katara and Sokka, fights Zuko and they fly to the Southern Air Temple.
2. Episode 2, "Warriors"
We knew going into this show that team Avatar would spend a lot of time on Kyoshi Island. This storyline wound up encompassing an entire episode and it did not disappoint. Mostly. My main critique is that when Avatar Kyoshi manifests through Aang, it ends with an anticlimactic encounter where she flings a bunch of Fire Nation dudes against walls. I couldn't stop thinking about Roku redirecting the firebenders in the Nickelodeon show and using lavabending to destroy his own temple. Way cooler in my opinion.
The lackluster Kyoshi performance aside, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. Sokka particularly shined and actor Ian Ousley cranked up the charm for his romance arc with Suki. Suki gives Sokka great lessons in non-bender fighting and how to overcome that disadvantage. With future seasons of the show confirmed, I'll be eager to see them rekindle their relationship later on.
Before Kyoshi takes control of Aang's body, she delivers some quintessential Avatar Kyoshi harshness. She urges Aang to take a leadership role in the world conflict and become a general, enforcer or mediator when need be. I honestly wish more people talked to Aang like this. Or he at least took the advice to heart because he really doesn't. Kyoshi explains that in order to become a fully realized Avatar and harness the power of the Avatar state, he needs to master the other elements. But he makes no progress on this front for the rest of the season so it's kind of a let down.
1. Episode 6, "Masks"
The cream of the crop in this eight-episode batch is "Masks." But every episode so far has had its share of flaws and this one is no different. Aang's visit to Avatar Roku's temple comes with another slew of annoying missteps. Instead of sneaking into the temple, Aang waltzes in the front door and expects the fire sages to be friendly. My guy, you are in the Fire Nation, these are bad guys. Then we get a heinous portrayal of Roku; he feel more like a children's entertainer instead of a badass Avatar.
But this episode stands out for a lot of reasons, mostly for how it brings Zuko and Iroh's backstory full circle and fleshes out Aang and Zuko's early relationship. After Aang is taken by Zhao, Zuko disguises himself as the blue spirit and busts him out. Like in the animated show, Aang figures out his true identity and saves him from capture. But the Netflix version has Aang and Zuko spending much more time together.
With Zhao's soldiers nearby, Aang and Zuko are forced to hole up in an abandoned building where they bond about having immense pressure on their shoulders. Aang is the Avatar and Zuko is the heir to the Fire Nation throne forced into exile unless he finds the Avatar. Aang also admits that Zuko's notebook — which he stole earlier in the season — has taught him more about the nature of being the Avatar than anything else so far.
These scenes serve as fantastic foreshadowing for their future friendship and how they come together to fix the world later on. They learn from each other and Aang sees the good in Zuko just like Iroh does. Speaking of Iroh, the flashback of him being the only one comforting Zuko after Ozai burns his face was a touching way for him to return Zuko's empathy at Lu Ten's funeral two episodes ago. Another one of the better changes was Zuko's crew being the same soldiers whose lives he advocated for in the war meeting. Iroh informs the crew that Zuko gave up his honor and received a permanant scar on his face to save their asses, making them finally show respect to him for his admirable sacrifice.
This episode again underlines the fact that the best changes to the source material came to the Fire Nation characters. Zuko and Iroh specifically felt more dimensional, fleshed out and had satisfying arcs compared to where they were in season 1 of the original show. But those changes don't change my overall opinion on this show.
Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender falls short of capturing the magic and charm of the original series. While there are some redeeming qualities in certain episodes, the overall execution leaves much to be desired. From rushed pacing to lackluster character portrayals, the live-action adaptation fails to capture the heart and soul of the beloved animated series. As a massive fan of the original show, I can only hope that future projects from Avatar Studios can re-capture the original show's magic, or that the remake improves in future seasons.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels