OPINION – How Avatar: The Last Airbender SHOULD Have Ended

*Disclaimer – there are spoilers within the following opinion piece, a piece which is completely and utterly genius and should be heeded by the creators and implemented as a revision. But I’m just a lowly non-bender so what would I know…*

If you haven’t seen Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix, then 1) You really won’t have a ton of context reading this, but I’m flattered nonetheless and 2) you should consider delving into it. A fairly simple show, it’s about the forces of good versus evil in a world where ‘bending’ – the use of mystical magic inherent to certain individuals to control elements – rules the fate of the world. Pretty innocent, funny at times and just downright fun. If you are a non-viewer and are intrigued, check out a summary here before continuing on.

It ran on Nickelodean as one of those shows that you saw intermittently as a kid when your older sister wasn’t hogging the remote to watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Fortunately, it takes about five episodes for anything really important to ever happen, so odds are you didn’t miss much if an episode came and went.

Or so I thought.

Rewatching the show as an adult (Yep, I’m claiming adult status. I looked at HomeGoods for a nice chef’s knife; it’s official), I realized that all those little mini quests the Avatar and his crew partake in, like saving a meager village from pollution or something, actually develops the characters, even if there is a barbaric Fire Lord threatening to enslave the world not unlike the Nazi regime… Essentially, they plug in all those little quests so Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph and, eventually, Prince Zuko can interact and spin those little webs of character development that captivate us so. For example:

Holy smokes, Toph just blushed when Sokka held her hand. Are they in love!?

These little bread crumbs are scattered throughout, and it took me actually sitting down and not clipping my toenails during the episode to pick up on their importance. They all added little waves in the plot line that eventually harmonized and created an undercurrent that was as much important to the story than the visceral plot, which is Aang saving the world by defeating the Fire Lord and his Fire Nation goons.

The most pressing question ripping at my heartstrings after each episode was this:

Will Katara and Aang’s love survive this war?

As we all know, the answer was yes. Aang defeats Fire Lord Ozai – the latter calling himself the Phoenix King as he plots to take over the world – and the war of the four nations ends. Aang, basking in the glory of victory (as much basking as a humble monk like himself can do), shares a moment with Katara on the porch, overlooking the peaceful Ba Sing Se. The giant question is answered when Katara gives Aang the kiss he’d been fantasizing about the entire series. It’s a kiss that affirms their love and puts a nice little bow on top of the neatly packaged ending. Hurray, our heroes’ love is saved!

But it shouldn’t have been.

From the beginning, Aang and Katara seemed to tip-toe around their feelings for each other. At first, it was a simple smile, or blushing when one did something affectionate for the other. The very first person Aang saw after his hundred years of frozen slumber was Katara, and in that episode we discern just a hint of his impending love for the water bender. As the episodes give way to seasons, we watch as Aang’s feelings grow stronger, never wavering despite the pressures of being an Avatar destined to save the world. Katara’s feelings aren’t so readily available to the viewer.

It isn’t until Aang meets with the Guru at an air temple that things really start to get interesting. We learn that Aang can control the Avatar state, the state of being that allows him to masterfully wield all four elements, but only by unblocking his chakras. This is key to the entire story; without the Avatar state, Aang stands little chance of defeating the Fire Lord. But gaining control of the Avatar state comes at a cost. In order to unblock the last chakra, Aang must let go of worldly attachments, which in this case is his unwavering love for Katara. He refuses to, but the Guru insists that if he is ever to gain control of the Avatar state, he must let her go. In a Luke Skywalker fashion (fun fact: Mark Hamil plays Lord Ozai), Aang has a vision and abandons his training with the Guru to come to the aid of Katara, who is then being imprisoned by Azula and the Dai Li in Ba Sing Se. His impulsivity to save Katara and throw his training by the wayside should have effectively ‘sealed’ his ability to enter the Avatar state. Indeed, it seems to be the case for the remainder of the show. A few times he enters the all-powerful Avatar state, but it is not of his own doing. His only way to regain the Avatar state seems to be through extreme emotional or physical pain, like when Lord Ozai forces him back onto a pointed rock that juuuuust happens to stab into his wound from Azula’s lightning blast. Aang in turn enters the Avatar state, blasts Lord Ozai left and right and eventually takes away Ozai’s bending abilities, thus defeating him. Simultaneously, Zuko and Katara defeat Azula; Toph, Suki and Sokka stop the Fire Nation warships from blowing up Ba Sing Se, and the climax comes to a close. They all end the day drinking tea with Uncle Iroh. Yay!

Here is how I would have ended it:

Aang and Lord Ozai battle it out on the rock spires before Ba Sing Se, Katara and Zuko confront Azula on her crowning of Fire Lord, and the lesser heroes Toph, Sokka and Suki attempt to the stop the bombing raid by the Fire Nation warships. Just as it was set it up in the show, Aang and Lord Ozai begin their fighting and it is clear that Aang is heavily outmatched compared to his foe, who his drawing strength from the comet to unleash a fury unseen by Fire Benders at this point. At the same time, Zuko and Azula enter into an Agni Kai – a fire bending duel – while Katara watches from the sideline. Aang, barely holding on, manages to bend a sphere of earth around him amidst Ozai’s onslaught. This protective sphere won’t last long, as we can see in the show. He needs the Avatar state! Suddenly, Aang hears the voice of the Guru, who once again tells Aang he must let go of his love for Katara to unblock his chakra and enter into the Avatar state. Aang meditates within his protective sphere and again walks down that mystical spirit road in his head, finally prepared to do what is necessary to unlock the Avatar state. His letting go of Katara wouldn’t be totally unwarranted, either. Just a few episodes before, he had confronted her about his feelings for her, and she seemed aloof as she told him she was confused. He made matters worse by kissing her immediately after, for which she got angry. So it would make sense for him, a monk, to let go of this selfish love for a girl who may not love him back in order to save the world. He prepares to do just that.

Meanwhile, Zuko and Azula’s epic Agni Kai rages on. It is clear that Azula is coming unraveled and Zuko, normally the inferior fire bender, gains the upper hand. As it played out in the show, Azula breaks the sacred rules of the Agni Kai and directs a lightning blast at Katara. Zuko, just moments away from defeating his sinister sister, launches himself in front of the lightning strike to save Katara. Here’s where we diverge from the show. Zuko falls to the floor, where Azula capitalizes on her trick and begins shocking him as he lays unconscious, utterly defenseless.

Aang, moments away from letting go of all feelings for Katara and entering the Avatar state, receives a vision from the battle between Zuko and Azula, and watches as Katara steps in to save the unconscious Zuko from certain death. Katara, a water bender facing a crazed fire bender on the day of the comet, stands no chance. She quickly is overcome by Azula’s prowess, and her defeat becomes imminent as Azula holds nothing back. Aang sees this and his emotions overcome him; he must save Katara! If he could flee the battle, maybe he could reach her in time… But his own protective sphere is crumbling around him, and Fire Lord Ozai is moments away from blasting through, killing Aang, and leveling the city of Ba Sing Se; the Fire Nation would rule the world. A powerless Aang watches in dismay as Katara falls to her knees, her water bending slowly giving way to Azula’s lightning. Katara musters every last ounce of strength to hold Azula off, but Azula’s lightning is too much. It begins to shock Katara. Aang, in his last moment before his earth bending crumbles away to Lord Ozai’s fire, shouts out to Katara, who through some mystical Avatar connection, hear’s Aang voice. In anguish, she tells him that he must stay and defeat Lord Ozai. She tells him that everything makes sense, that Aang is following his destiny, and now she must follow hers. And finally, that she loves him. Choking back his tears, Aang professes his love for her as well. Katara, ever wise, realizes that Aang must let her go to save the world; she silently urges him to do so. This becomes Aang most conflicting decision, his ultimate quagmire. Up until this point, saving the world meant saving the ones he loved. Now, under the shadow of evil, he is forced to choose. Aang tells her goodbye, and lets go of all love and feeling for Katara, the water bender who freed him from the ice and captured his heart so long ago. Their connection draws to a close as she falls to the ground, Azula’s lightning too much for her water bending, and she dies knowing that Aang will save the world. She smiles at her falling, picturing her mother and the sacrifice she once made to save Katara.

As his last worldly attachment is let go, Aang’s chakra is unblocked and he enters the Avatar state in an overwhelming fury. He blasts through his protective rock-sphere and begins the vicious defeat of Lord Ozai. His feelings of loss and sorrow are replaced by insatiable, insurmountable rage and comes within moments of killing Ozai. And yet, he leaves the Avatar state, taking the high road and bending Ozai’s spirit, removing his fire bending abilities. Ozai is defeated. Zuko regains consciousness at Katara’s death, and, emboldened by her sacrifice, defeats Azula and cradles Katara’s body in his arms until the other heroes join sometime later.

The rest is fairly straightforward. Sokka weeps for his sister’s death, but knows Katara has been reunited with their mother. He, along with Toph, Suki, and the other lesser characters slowly recede into the background. Iroh and the other White Lotus members once again scatter to their rightful places in the world. Zuko rules as the Fire Lord and manifests an era of peace and love, as promised. The heroes all hold a steady kinship long into their lives. But Aang is never the same. The innocent, fun-loving boy who uplifted the world around him died with Katara’s last breath, and in his place remains the boy who made the ultimate sacrifice; the boy who gave up his everything, to save everyone. He carries that sacrifice – sometimes as grace and others as shackles – till his dying day. And with each beautiful sunrise over the four nations, he is reminded of the ultimate cost of peace; of that girl from the Southern Water Tribe.