Avatar: The Last Airbender/YMMV


  • Alas, Poor Villain:
    • Azula is a terrible, terrible person, and while it's possible to feel sorry for her, usually she's such a Magnificent Bitch that you temporarily forget those feelings. Then she spends the whole series finale going steadily crazier and crazier, with her Freudian Excuse coming to the surface. Then she finally snaps after she loses to Katara and the last shot of her in the series is her sobbing uncontrollably, with Zuko and Katara themselves looking sad about it.
    • Sozin dies offscreen, but he gets a lot more sympathetic by then, realizing that he basically crossed the Moral Event Horizon by betraying and murdering his best friend and wiping out the Air Nation, and has nothing to show for it except an empty, hollow life.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Enough for their own page.
    • Azula: sociopathic Manipulative Bitch or is she just a product of parental neglect, much like Zuko, but without the benefit of having a loving figure in her life?
      • She's both. She's not a character who can be so simply defined.
      • Word of God seems to lean at least slightly towards the latter though. The creators have stated in interviews that Azula isn't inherently evil in nature despite her genetics and may eventually get better.
      • As a child, why did she tell Zuko that Ozai was going to kill him on Azulon's orders, when all that accomplished was Ursa saving his life? Was she, in her own way, trying to warn him because she cared about him on some level? Or did she simply want to terrorize him with news of his impending death and watch him squirm, only inadvertently saving his life because, in true sociopath fashion, she didn't think about the consequences of her actions?
    • Ozai: Word of God says he got along very well with Ursa when they first married, which could mean he wasn't always this evil. Conversely, it could say some things about Ursa...
    • Combustion Man: All over the place, which is understandable. We still know very little about this guy as a person.
    • Azulon: Considering how little is known about him and how ambiguous the scenario involving him is, alternate interpretations have cropped up about the order to kill Zuko. Some see it as a sick display of affection and loyalty for his eldest son Iroh, others saw it as a Secret Test of Character that went out of hand, much like Abraham being ordered to sacrifice Isaac in The Bible. It has even been suggested that he never gave any such order—that Azula made it up in order to pick on Zuko, and Ozai went along with the lie in order to gain Ursa's cooperation. One Fanfic even suggested that when Azulon said that Ozai would feel the pain of losing his son, it was because Azulon wanted Zuko to become Iroh's heir.
    • Koh: Some people see him as a more neutral force, mostly because his one appearance in the series had him helping Aang. Alternatively, he could be seen as a Bigger Bad.
    • Katara: Good feminist icon in that she's an Action Girl who doesn't disavow her maternal instinct and still embraces her call to Team Mom or bad feminist icon in that she's hyper-emotional (to the point of allowing their entire overall mission to get sidetracked by her just-add-water instant sympathy for random townspeople who, really, will probably be helped out anyway by them rallying to finish overthrowing Ozai) and has that whole "Hell Hath No Fury" thing that leads her to betray her own ideals (in a very definitely bad way) and never really got called on it by any other character in the show?
    • Kyoshi: She's pretty much the Lawful Good of the Avatars so far that we seen. However people of Tumblr seem to be under the impression that just because she doesn't regret putting down Chin the conquerer to save her people, apparently she is now labeled a full on Blood Knight, who apparently loves to battle and kill her enemies. [1]
    • Zhao: What was his motive for rejecting Zuko's help when he was about to die? Zhao may have realized that, by accepting Zuko's hand, the both of them would have died simultaneously. Another idea is that, in his arrogance, Zhao refused to receive help from his teenaged rival, as he felt that being saved from (what he viewed as) an impatient, talentless, hot-headed and overconfident "child", on top of losing the battle at the Northern Water Tribe, would have disgraced his reputation to the public and his peers, damaged his authority over the Fire Nation military, and prompted a demotion. If this second possibility is true, then through death, as well as the Fire Lord holding the blame for the defeat on the Dragon of the West, Zhao managed to gain a slightly more 'merciful' final fate.
      • Another interpretation is that, through Zuko's rescue, Zhao felt that he would have owed his life to his rival out of obligation for being saved and may have perceived that as an act of submission. Finally, the last interpretation is that, once the Moon rose again, Zhao realized that his supposed "destiny" of being a legend was indeed false, and without this crutch to explain his own misdeeds, the purpose for his existence fell apart before his eyes. Zuko is basically a male version of Azula to them.
    • Zuko: In-universe. Aang, Sokka, and Katara treat him like a violent sociopath when he shows up at the Western Air Temple, because from their prospective he is. Zuko has only ever shown up around them to either assault them or, in the case of the Crystal Catacombs, stab them in the back after making peaceful overtures. They've never witnessed the same inner doubts and character growth that the viewers have. Only Toph has no history with Zuko, which is why she's the one willing to reach out to him first.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Dark Horse has announced that they'll be publishing new canonical comics in early 2012 that bridge the gap between the end of the series and The Legend of Korra, as well as an anthology of all the Avatar comics featured in the now defunct Nickelodeon Magazine. Looks like the fans might get their "Book 4" after all.
  • Angel-Devil Shipping: Nice Guy Aang and sociopathic master manipulator Azula has a surprising amount of fans purely due to the dynamic involved. The infamous "Zutara" ship (Zuko x Katara) also owes its popularity to the Slap Slap Kiss dynamic between the pure-hearted Katara and angsty bad boy Zuko, so much that it was easily the biggest ship during the show's heyday.
  • Anvilicious: "The Great Divide." The tribes hate each other, and this is a Bad Thing. We get it.
    • At least they realize this and skip it in the Ember Island play.
  • Base Breaker: Aang... and Katara... and Azula... and Suki... and Mai... and Ty Lee... and Zuko. Name a character, really.
    • While he doesn't have a dedicated hatedom, Aang qualifies mainly due to his approach with handling the Ozai problem, specifically depowering him as opposed to killing him, as detailed below under Broken Base. While plenty of people are glad that Aang was able to put a decisive end to Ozai's tyranny without compromising the morals he holds so deeply, it doesn't stop some viewers from complaining that it was a convenient cop-out that prevented him from learning a valuable lesson: that sometimes you have to compromise your values for the sake of the greater good.
    • How much you like Katara pretty much hinges on how much patience you have for her when she starts lashing out at her friends and how Easily Forgiven she is for it. It certainly prevents her from just being a stock example of The Chick, giving her depth beyond being the "nice, wise, (initially) token girl of the Gaang", and is a fairly realistic trait for a teenager saddled with her fair share of trauma to have. But as likable as she is otherwise, plenty of viewers take issue with the fact that her way of lashing out (mocking Toph for her blindness, accusing her own brother of not caring about their dead mother as much as she does) crosses the line to the point that she just comes off as nasty and cruel. Her tendency to preach and moralize certainly doesn't help her perception with her detractors, either.
    • While a bonafide Breakout Villain whose cool factor, stunning good looks, and surprising character depth all make her one of the show's most beloved characters, Azula isn't immune to courting controversy for a few reasons.
      • Her insane hypercompetence as a villain is a major reason. Despite being a teenager, Azula is a deadly master planner and an even deadlier warrior, resulting in her being an unshakable threat who gives the Gaang a run for their money time and time again, and practically towers over every other villain in terms of sheer competence, outdone only by her father. But while that's a recipe for a cool and beloved villain, it also stretches plenty of viewers' suspension of disbelief when she regularly outmanuevers and outplays plenty of competent adults with insane Xantos Gambits, and wins fights purely because Aang and friends briefly forget certain techniques that would certainly bring her to heel. Unsurprisingly, for every ten fans who hold her up as a textbook example of Evil Is Cool, there's ten detractors who roll their eyes at her plot armor and consider her to be a borderline Villain Sue.
      • There's also the matter of how much sympathy she should be afforded when all is said and done. While she's a nasty sadist who had sociopathic tendencies even as a child, she's also undeniably a product of a very toxic home environment with a Complete Monster father who spoiled her and encouraged her to indulge in her cruel behavior, and a mother who just plain didn't know how to connect with her Creepy Child of a daughter, resulting in a girl who's every bit as damaged as she is evil to the point that her mental issues come to a head and result in a truly heartbreaking and pitiful Villainous Breakdown. Because of how nasty and tragic she is, there's plenty of arguing about whether she was just as redeemable as Zuko and wasn't given a fair chance to become a better person, or if she was rotten to the core and completely irredeemable.
    • And because they form a Terrible Trio with Azula, Ty Lee and Mai are often loved and criticized for similar reasons, at least as far as villain competence goes. While Mai's arsenal of bladed weapons and Ty Lee's acrobatics and chi-blocking definitely make them fun to watch in a fight, their track record of constantly triumphing over powerful Benders comes off as even tougher to buy than Azula's many victories since they have even less of an excuse than Azula. While she's the de facto heir to the seat of Fire Lord and thus trained to peak perfection as a warrior (and her good genes certainly help), they're simply a circus acrobat and a noblewoman who is really good with throwing knives.
    • Suki. While well-liked due to being yet another cool Action Girl who has a great dynamic with Sokka, she's easily the least popular of the Gaang due to many people viewing her as boring and not really contributing much to the team.
    • Zuko may be considered to be the textbook definition of a Heel Face Turn done right, he still catches flack for his mopeiness, angst, and Heel Face Revolving Door tendencies beforehand, which his detractors feel make it very hard to feel sorry for him.
  • Brick Joke: In "Daydreams and Nightmares", Aang has a reoccurring "Not Wearing Pants" Dream about fighting the Fire Lord only to discover he's not wearing pants, until he eventually gets over it, saying: "No, Fire Lord, it is you who is not wearing pants!" "My royal parts are showing!" In the finale, Aang and Ozai are both shirtless for most of the fight, so they are both only and specifically wearing pants.
  • Broken Base: The debate over the movie casting is so intense that entire forums are divided over it, with those supporting the casting and those against it being banned for their opinions. Protesters see those that are okay with the casting as blind and shrugging off a big issue, while those that eagerly anticipate the movie see the protesters as not "true" fans. The same applies to the Netflix adaptation.
    • Aang's conflict in the finale split fans between those who felt it came out of nowhere and those who felt it was perfectly justified given what we'd seen of Aang to that point. Then there's the controversy over whether the resolution of using the previously unseen Energybending so Aang could stop Ozai without killing him was reasonably foreshadowed or a complete Ass Pull. But the less said the better.
    • Shipping, anyone? Let's see, we have Kataang versus Zutara versus Taang versus Maiko versus Jetara. Then we have Sukka/George versus Yuokka versus Tykka versus The Doph versus Taang versus Toko versus Tokka. And that's not even mentioning anyone outside of the Five-Man Band or any of the crack/ yaoi/ yuri pairings.
  • Cargo Ship: Sokka/Boomerang, on again off again.
  • Complete Monster: Fire Lord Ozai qualifies big time. When his son disrespected one of his generals (who deserved it), he responded by burning off a good portion of his face, then banishing him until he could capture the Avatar, which would have been an impossible task had it not been for sheer dumb luck leading to Aang's reawakening. Three years later, when Zuko mouths off again, he tries shooting him with lightning. The whole reason he got the throne in the first place was by manipulating his wife into killing his father for him, because his father ordered him to kill Zuko as punishment for suggesting that he give the throne to him instead of Iroh. And he was going to do it. And then he spends half the finale burning the whole Earth Kingdom to the ground just to quell a few uprisings there, and the other half trying to kill a twelve year-old boy. He feels no remorse for any of this. And impressively, just in case he wasn't bad enough in the show, the sequel comics make him even worse! It turns out that his abuse of Zuko doesn't merely stem from disappointment in a "weak son", but also from spite towards his wife. When Ursa made it clear that she wished that Zuko wasn't Ozai's son, Ozai decided to make that wish come true in the worst way possible: by treating Zuko like he wasn't his son and abusing him as if he were an unwanted outsider.
    • Azula is an interesting subversion: by the end of Season 2, she appeared to be filling the necessary Complete Monster qualities. Then Season 3 came, she gradually unravelled, had her Villainous Breakdown, and ended up with only one of the criteria left (that she has committed heinous crimes within the context of the story.) In the end, although she did a good job emulating her father for a while, she couldn't escape being a Tragic Villain.
    • Commander Zhao's a nasty piece of work himself. While he starts off as a fairly typical cartoon bad guy, 'The Blue Spirit' ramps things up by having him trap Aang in a maximum security prison with the intent of keeping him alive for decades (if not an entire century) barely clinging to life and suffering horribly so future incarnations of the Avatar can't interfere with the Fire Nation's genocidal military campaign. And then there's 'The Waterbending Master', where he hires pirates to brutally murder the teenage Zuko over a petty grudge. But he really comes into his own during the Season 1 finale, where he risks an apocalypse by killing the Moon Spirit for the sake of an ego boost, fully aware of what's at stake and not caring in the slightest.
    • Long Feng is living proof that the Fire Nation hardly has a monopoly on incredibly evil villains. As the head of the Dai Li, Ba Sing Se's scarily competent (and just plain scary) secret police, he rules the city from the shadows and uses mass-brainwashing to turn its citizens into mindlessly loyal sycophants that he can crush under his heel. He also successfully murders a child (albeit, a teenager), due to landing a killing blow on Jet, who he had previously brainwashed into attacking Aang with the intent to kill. And if that wasn't bad enough, he actively cripples the war effort against the Fire Nation by keeping the Earth King ignorant to its existence and eventually playing a key role in its downfall by backing Azula's coup, meaning that all the lives lost and civilians displaced by the war can be partially blamed on his desperation to maintain power at all costs.
    • And then there's Hama, an evil Waterbender who invented the art of Bloodbending, which allows her to tortuously bend the fluids in a person's body to turn them into her People Puppets. For years, she's used the power of Bloodbending to force innocent people to imprison themselves in a mountain where they're left to rot for the "crime" of being born in the Fire Nation, and when she meets a fellow Waterbender in Katara, she tries to corrupt her into becoming a fellow Bloodbender before forcing Aang and Sokka to try to kill her, and then each other, when she refuses. Despite being little more than a Monster of the Week, she casts a dark shadow over not just this series, but the franchise as a whole due to the lasting trauma she inflicts on Katara, as well as the way she sets the stage for other evil Waterbenders to follow in her footsteps by the time Korra becomes the Avatar.
      • And while Hama's backstory is undeniably tragic, with her once being an innocent, doe-eyed Water Tribe girl who was taken from her home and tortured by the Fire Nation, it doesn't change the fact that she willingly, sadistically hurts not only innocent people uninvolved with the Fire Nation's military efforts, but she's willing to do the same to her own tribesmen with twisted and psychotic glee.
  • Crazy Awesome: Bumi, Omashu's resident Badass Grandpa/Magnificent Bastard whose Trickster Mentor characterization and general weirdness are why he's such a massive Ensemble Darkhorse.
  • Creepy Awesome: Koh the Face Stealer and Azula. The former is a genuinely terrifying spirit who is one of the show's biggest sources of Nightmare Fuel, and the latter is every bit as batshit insane and sadistic as she is cunning and charismatic.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: This morbidly hilarious bit of angst from Azula.

Azula: I could sit here and complain how our mom liked Zuko more than me, but I don't really care. My own mother thought I was a monster. (beat) She was right, of course, but it still hurt.

  • Darker and Edgier: Apparently, The Promise seems to be heading in this direction. Not only is it showing that the ending for the series is not the definitive one nor as happy as it initially seems, but both Fire Lord Zuko AND Earth King Kuei slip into Well-Intentioned Extremist territory. A hundred years of warfare can't be unmade in just a few months, after all.
  • Die for Our Ship: Has its own page.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Zuko (before his Heel Face Turn), Zhao, Azula, and yes, even Ozai. In general, the Fire Nation is basically Evil Is Cool applied to an entire country: the bog-standard Mooks wear intimidating armor, they have access to tanks, warships, and airships, and every big-name Firebender is an absolute treat to watch. So naturally, these characters are lionized because they're just that cool (and in Zuko and Azula's case, tragic), war crimes and general atrocities be damned.
    • And on the other side of the coin, there's Jet and his group of rebels that want to fight against the Fire Nation. While no one can fault them for wanting to fight back against their oppressors, more politically outspoken parts of the fandom are quick to ignore the fact that they're murderous terrorists who go above and beyond what's necessary, with their plan to destroy a dam endangering a ton of innocent people whose only crime is living in territory occupied by the Fire Nation. And as for Jet himself, he's quite the Manipulative Bastard on top of that, using charm, charisma, and lies to drive a wedge between Sokka and the rest of the Gaang for his own benefit.
  • Dry Docking: Generally, Zutara shippers have the reputation (whether or not it's deserved is an argument that can light a forum ablaze almost instantly) of projecting romance onto the character they identify with and the character they want to tap. However, it's also common for people to go one step beyond and declare that "ZUKO/ME IS THE ONLY THING I SHIP!!!"
  • Ear Worm: SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL...
    • ...and DIE...
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Jin and Ty Lee have this in common for two very big reasons. Though of course, they owe their popularity to their cuteness and sweet demeanor as well as their good looks. Jin in particular due to how well she got along with Zuko (to the point where Zuko x Jin is a fairly popular ship despite her status as a one-off character), while Ty Lee's chi-blocking and acrobatic fighting style are equal parts unique and fun to watch.
    • Suki was originally meant to be a one-off character, but they brought her back by fan demand and she eventually became part of the Gaang.
    • Mai has won over quite a few fans thanks to her snarky goth girl demeanor, though not as many as Ty Lee.
    • Jet was meant to be a one-shot character, but fan popularity brought him back for four more appearances.
    • Foamy Mouth Guy. Even non-fans like him a lot due to how popular his over-the-top reaction to Aang is as a gif.
    • Koh. Creepy Awesome personified, and very intriguing due to his Affably Evil nature and bizarre sense of morality. It also helps that he shares a voice actor with a certain lovable wasteland DJ.
    • THE BOULDER. A goofy Third-Person Person speech pattern and having Mick Foley as his VA can go a long way in elevating a minor antagonist to a beloved fandom icon.
    • The Cabbage Merchant, too, thanks to his hilarious never-ending string of bad luck, and of course...
    • Despite just being the Starter Villain, Zhao is still fondly remembered for his competence (Smug Snake tendencies aside), Jason Isaac's awesome voice, and being reckless and insane enough to kill the goddamned MOON. Needless to say, his surprise return in The Legend of Korra as a crazed, wayward lost soul was a highlight of not just the season, but the show as a whole.
    • King Bumi. How can you not like such a goofy, eccentric, and badass old coot?
    • Avatar Kyoshi. Even before her novel duology fleshed her out, she was easily the most popular of Aang's past lives thanks to her stunning good looks, amazing bending feats (that include separating an island sized chunk of land from a continent), and no-nonsense attitude towards evil-doers.
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • Seriously, what happened to Ursa? Before the comics clarified her fate, theories ranged from her being dead, in hiding, or even stuck in the Spirit World somehow.
    • Combustion Man is a badass, silent assassin with a mysterious past, a completely unique form of Firebending, and leaves more questions then answers. You do the math.
      • According to creator commentary, he has an extremely overdeveloped third eye, which makes sense as his tattoo looks like the symbol for an Ajna chakra.
    • What are the stories behind all of Koh's faces? The only one we really know anything about is the woman, who is eventually revealed to be the wife of Kuruk, a previous Avatar who offended Koh.
  • Evil Is Sexy:
    • Azula, Ozai, and Zuko. Their good looks clearly run in the family, and all three have a unique appeal all to their own: Azula for being a flirty and sadistic manipulator who looks good in a bikini, Zuko for being a hot-tempered and angsty bad boy with a tendency to lose his shirt, and Ozai for his muscular physique and domineering presence.
    • Mai and Ty Lee also. It's more apparent with the curvaceous Ty Lee who bares her belly pretty much all the time, but Mai's elegant and snarky demeanor give her an appeal all of her own.
    • Zhao. He's quite dashing despite his unsavory nature, and it helps that he's voiced by Lucius Malfoy.
    • Lian "the Maker" from the first video game, a very attractive and murderous Wrench Wench.
    • Pretty much every significant villain tends to look good, save for the likes of the rather average-looking Long Feng and Hama, the scary old Bloodbending hag.
  • Fan Community Nicknames: Due primarily to one certain "megafan"'s infamous, longrunning satire comic of the Avatar fandom, fans have come to almost unanimously accept the term "Avatards". (Some people feel that, in referring to the term "retard", fans' use of this label is demeaning to the mentally-disabled.)
    • The term fell out of use after The Legend of Korra was announced, at least partially because of the Unfortunate Implications - it's now rarer to find someone in the fandom who calls themselves an Avatard than someone who doesn't, even after "retard" came back in vogue during the early 2020's.
  • Fan Dumb: Fans complain about the pronunciation in the movie (which appears to be for the most part more phonetically correct), to be fair the wrong pronunciation in the cartoon is constant so it can be considered as the right way to say the names in that world.
    • Actually, there's no evidence that the movie pronunciations are more "phonetically correct" at all. A better example of Fan Dumb would be how fans complained about the long hiatuses between seasons without considering how much time is needed for animation as quality as Avatar's was.
      • Meh that's more Nick's fault for not knowing how to properly space out the airing of new episodes.
  • Fandom Rivalry: "A couple more years, and you might be ready to fight a sea sponge." (For the record, we were. "Yes! We have defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!"[1])
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Zutara (Zuko/Katara) is the biggest example—about 22% of the AtLA fanfics at Fanfiction.net alone list the two as main characters. Doesn't help that Zutara had an unusual amount of Ship Tease in the show, or that they had their own canon shippers, in the form of June and the Ember Island Players. Other couples like Aang/Toph, Sokka/Toph, Sokka/Azula and Ty Lee/Azula also attract large numbers of shippers.
    • And we have a new couple: YUE/ KORRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Fashion Victim Villain: Ozai. Not in the sense that he looks ridiculous, but rather that his overly elaborate and regal robes don't really scream "world's most dangerous Firebender". Though he fixes that in time for the final battle.
  • Foe Yay: Responsible for a lot of the shipping between Zuko and Katara (not that shippers need any encouragement).
  • Fountain of Memes: Sokka. Many of his witty remarks and hilarious lines make up at least half of the series' most popular memes, particularly everything that comes out of his mouth after getting drunk on cactus juice.

"It's the quenchiest!"

  • Franchise Original Sin: A number of criticisms thrown at The Legend of Korra (fairly or unfairly) actually had their roots in this show, a fact often ignored by both its Hate Dumb a well as its more level-headed critics.
    • While Korra was criticized for the sudden leap in technological advances (with Kuvira's Humongous Mecha in particular attracting cries of Ruined FOREVER), The Last Airbender already had its fair share of Schizo-Tech: the Fire Nation alone employs tanks, iron warships, airships, and an extremely complex drilling machine, while the Earth Kingdom also goes on to employ supply trucks. Since the Fire Nation was already undergoing a massive industrial revolution during the 100 Years' War, it's not much of a stretch to assume that it would go on even further during the intervening years between the rest of Aang's tenure as the Avatar and Korra's arrival at Republic City, with the mech not even being that outlandish when compared to the aforementioned drilling machine and tanks.
    • Likewise, people who roll their eyes at Korra's Book 2 ending in a Kaiju fight between a giant spirit-powered Korra and "UnaVaatu" like to forget that the exact same thing happened during The Last Airbender's Book 1 with Aang fusing with the Ocean Spirit to create a gigantic koi monster. The only real difference is that Korra had another kaiju-sized opponent to fight while "Koizilla" steamrolled a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: When Aunt Wu offers to tell Iroh's fortune in "Bato of the Water Tribe", Iroh says that for a man of his age, there was only one great surprise left and he preferred that to remain a mystery. A year later, Iroh's voice actor Mako had passed away and was unable to finish the series.
    • Also, in "Jet":

Katara: We were following instinct.
Jet: You'll get yourself killed that way.

  • Genius Bonus: Dear lord, everything. Ozai's title in the finale is probably a reference to the Chinese "fenghuang" (the phoenix lord of demons, which is symbolic in and of itself).
    • The final Shonen Upgrade Aang gets becomes a lot less of an Ass Pull if you know your ancient Greek natural philosophy.
    • The sheer number of accurate details from different cultures is immensely rewarding for anyone familiar with Asian history.
      • Note that this is not just Ancient Asian history. Many of the best references and parallels are actually from 20th century China and Japan. Ba Sing Se especially will ring a lot of bells for anyone who's been to China.
  • Growing the Beard: In the trope sense, it seems most of the fans agree the show was great from the start but others like to point at various points in the first season (and even up to Season 2) as to where it "really" hit its stride, most citing the double whammy of "The Storm" and "The Blue Spirit" as the point where the growth completed. However, there are a number of literal cases of sudden beard growth, too.
    • Iroh's beard goes from its Season 1 Fire Nation style goatee-with-sideburns to a much longer Earth Kingdom style over the course of Season 2.
    • When Haru shows up again in "Day of Black Sun" to help in the invasion of the Fire Nation capitol, he has grown facial hair (lampshaded by Sokka in his Disorganized Outline Speech).
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Iroh exasperatedly telling Zuko he'll never find the Avatar in the first episode. Once you know Zuko's whole backstory, it can come off pretty damn callous in a rewatch since he's basically offhandedly saying "Oh, just give up on ever returning to your homeland, family, and birthright and go to bed." Granted, Zuko's hunt for the Avatar was very clearly a Snipe Hunt by design and it's only through sheer luck that he ends up with an Avatar to hunt at all. Iroh very clearly didn't want his nephew to waste his entire life on an impossible task, or feel forced to appease a father who was that disgustingly abusive towards him, but one still can't help but feel that he could have worded things just a little bit better.
    • If one subscribes to the interpretation that Zhao let the Ocean Spirit drag him to his doom out of a belief that Ozai's punishment for failure would have been worse... well, it's safe to say that the very opposite ended up being true. By the time The Legend of Korra takes place, he's been trapped in the Spirit Realm for decades, having long since been reduced to a raving, ranting lunatic doomed to wander the Fog of Lost Souls forever. Even if Ozai tortured him beforehand, death at his hands would have been a mercy after all.
    • The quotes listed under Funny Aneurysm Moment above.
  • He's Just Hiding: Jet and Zhao.
    • Most fans still believe this of a number of Air Nomads, since it's very unlikely that the Fire Nation could feasibly wipe out all members of a nomadic sky-faring race. Ty Lee is actually used to argue this point due to sharing a lot of physical similarities to Aang, with it being a popular theory that she's ethnically an Air Nomad born to survivors (or the children of survivors) of the Fire Nation's purge.
    • In Universe example: When Aang is told that airbenders have not been seen in a century, he insists that they must be in hiding... and then he learns the truth...
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In "The Storm", Sokka describes a dream he had where Momo talked ("You said some very unkind things.") Two seasons later in "Nightmares and Daydreams", one of Aang's hallucinations starts with Momo talking.
    • The final scene of "The Ember Island Players" can also come off as this, as many fans came away from both The Last Airbender and the Netflix adaptation with the same sentiments.

Zuko: That... wasn't a good play.
Aang: I'll say.
Katara: No kidding.
Suki: Horrible.
Toph: You said it.
Sokka: But the effects were decent.

  • HSQ: The entirety of the last two episodes. Ass Pull aside, the series ends on one hell of a bang, with memorable and emotional battles between Zuko and Azula as well as Aang and Ozai, and tons of characters from throughout the series return to give the Fire Nation an ass-kicking of a lifetime.
    • Hell, any of the season finales counts, the season 2 finale arguably even more than the series finale. The Hero Dies, after all! (spiritually speaking, but still)
  • Internet Backdraft: "Who's the greatest Earthbender in the world: Toph or Bumi?"
  • Iron Woobie: Zuko. Angst and rage-fueled tantrums aside, he faces setback after setback with grim, angry determination. He will reclaim his honor, no matter how much shit the world throws his way.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Zuko during Season 1 and early Season 3. And in the end, Azula becomes one as well to those who don't view her as a thoroughly unsympathetic Complete Monster.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
    • Everyone is paired with Katara. No Exceptions.
    • Also, Sokka. This is the price he pays for having the most onscreen romantic interest.
    • Zuko and Azula, thanks to their intense dynamics with so many members of the cast.
    • It would just be easier to list who hasn't been paired off with Jin and Ty Lee considering the ships they've launched.
  • Les Yay: Toph with Katara, whose bickering goes beyond childish squabbling and reaches a point where you feel like you're watching a junior version of an old married couple butting heads with each other. Which is pretty hilarious, considering there were plans for Katara to get a crush on Toph back when he was a boy. And then there's Toph with Suki, especially during that Accidental Kiss.
    • Not to mention Azula and Ty Lee. Ty Lee is far less interested in the shirtless, hunky boys than she is in the bikini-clad Azula during the Beach Episode, and she gushes over how pretty and amazing she is on more than one occasion. And whenever Azula gets a rare tender moment with anyone, it's almost always with Ty Lee, whose betrayal of her ends up hitting incredibly hard and gets the ball rolling for her eventual Villainous Breakdown.
  • Love to Hate/Evil Is Cool: Azula, for those that prefer her to not be a DILP. Long Feng too, for being an effective Magnificent Bastard in his own right and possessing Clancy Brown's awesome voice. Zhao is much less Evil Is Cool but defenitely Love to Hate.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Azula, who manages to succeed where her uncle failed and completely dominates the impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se in the name of the Fire Nation. Almost non-violently. Long Feng, an experienced Chessmaster himself, also warrants a mention for having the city completely in the palm of his hand, to the point that being exposed and imprisoned by the Gaang is a minor inconvenience for him. Even when outdone by Azula, he opts to surrender with as much dignity as he can muster, given the circumstances.
    • For a heroic example, there's Bumi, who puts on a convincing facade of a cruel and petty bully of a king as part of his Trickster Mentor shtick, successfully getting Aang to pass the harsh trials he sets by forcing him to think outside the box and making sure he's sharp enough to handle the real bad guys later down the line. And not only is he an effective trickster, but he's clearly having a hell of a fun time testing Aang and chews the scenery for what it's worth.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Parodied with Sokka's Wang Fire persona, who becomes a Fire Nation hero.
    • Toph, the most badass little girl in the history of Western animation. And Iroh, the most badass old guy in all of Western animation, especially when he enters prison as a chubby old man and leaves as a musclebound bruiser who stages an awesome prison break all by himself.
    • Also Bumi, the only character in the series to Earthbend with his face!
  • Memetic Molester: Azula, who sounds like she's flirting with damn near everyone she talks to, her poor brother included, and has particularly creepy one-sided subtext with Suki, her "favorite prisoner".
  • Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
  • Memetic Sex Goddess: Pretty much every young female character on the show, but especially Katara, Toph, Azula, Mai, Jin and Ty Lee.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Jet and Hama both attract this from a very politically outspoken side of the fanbase, who hold them up as anti-colonialist heroes unfairly maligned by the characters and the story itself for fighting back against their oppressors. Thing is, for this to be true, you'd have to ignore the fact that they're perfectly willing to hurt and kill innocent people who have nothing to do with the Fire Nation's wartime atrocities, and have deeply unpleasant Manipulative Bastard traits on top of that. Hell, Hama exclusively targets civilians and never puts any effort into disrupting the Fire Nation's war efforts by attacking soldiers or their factories. If they're freedom fighters unfairly maligned by a biased narrative, then Fire Lord Ozai must be a benevolent ruler demonized by Protagonist-Centered Morality.
  • Misblamed: Some people claim the energybending in the finale was thrown in as a Deus Ex Machina in order to avoid killing on a kids' show. Except that Mike and Bryan had that idea as the resolution of the conflict in the series bible from the beginning. And death has been dealt with plenty of times in the show before (up to and including the main characters killing people, just look at Sokka killing Combustion Man), so this was again, not a case of Executive Meddling censorship. Aang was never going to end the war in a violent way. Though considering how poorly foreshadowed the whole thing was, it's not entirely a case of the Fan Dumb being upset with their headcanon failing to come true.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Zhao crosses it by killing the moon spirit, which indirectly leads to Yue's death.
    • Long Feng when he brainwashed Jet, and then killed him as soon as he came to his senses.
    • In-universe, Zuko feels his father crossed it being willing to commit genocide instead of dealing with a few rebellions. This breaks Zuko of his need to get his father's love at all costs.

Sokka: I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just pure evil.

    • For the viewers, Ozai crosses a new Moral Event Horizon almost every time he appears onscreen. The only time he didn't do or try to do something really horrible was his appearance in "The Awakening", when we finally got to see his face.
    • Sozin when he abandons Roku to die and then wipes out an entire race of people.
      • Sozin is an interesting example as he actually realizes that he crossed this and regrets it by the end of his life, ultimately realizing that all his success was meaningless because it wasn't worth the cost.
    • Azula crossed it when she shot Aang in the back with lightning, thus proving she will do anything to serve her father. Unless of course, you find that disturbingly awesome.
      • If you do find that to be a Moment of Awesome, then her being the one to advocate (and partially inspire, though Ozai's the one who takes it to its most horrific stage) the whole "raze the Earth Kingdom until it's all ash" plan of her father's might be an even better one.
  • Multiple Demographic Appeal: Sure, it's a kids' show. It also tackles very mature themes, has plenty of Fan Service for anyone who's interested, and isn't afraid to say die when it's warranted, all without becoming kid-unfriendly.
  • Narm: Zuko's reaction to Iroh being attacked by Azula in 'The Chase' to be this. While he has every right to freak out the way he does, he still yells "LEAVE!" in the most overwrought, unintentionally goofy fashion possible.
  • Narm Charm: Despite being somewhat Narmtastic, Zuko's comment on Mai's beauty ("You're so beautiful when you hate the world.") comes across as being rather sweet and romantic, albeit in an awkward, emotionally repressed teen sort of way.
    • Considering who the little moment is between, the awkwardness of exchanging "romantic" comments is arguably why it's adorable.
      • It helps that the "I don't hate you" "I don't hate you, too" followed by the kiss that comes afterwards is Played for Laughs.
    • Also Zuko's practice attempts to become a good guy and join the Gaang in the beginning of Season 3.
    • Honestly, Zuko is practically made of Narm Charm. He's a very angsty and emotional, hot-headed teen who is very vocal about how he feels that no one understands him and that the world itself is out to get him. But what makes him such a compelling character is the fact that he isn't some mopey Emo Teen: he's an emotionally and physically abused young man who has gone through hell, and the sheer amount of bullshit he endures makes it very clear that on some level, the world is out to get him. And it's part of why he's such a compelling character in the first place, and why it's so easy to root for him, even before his Heel Face Turn.
    • Even Azula has her moments of this when she tries to seduce one of the boys in the beach episode.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Koh, Hama, and Wan Shi Tong as well. All three are surprisingly potent sources of Nightmare Fuel for a kid-friendly show, and it's hard to tell who's creepier. Koh, for being a face-snatching, face-changing eldritch centipede... thing? Hama, for the horrific way she turns her victims into People Puppets? Wan Shi Tong, for being a creepy and vindictive all-too-realist-looking giant owl?
    • Ozai also counts, especially on a personal level. While his cruelty as a ruler makes him a threat to the world, it's his disgusting treatment of his family that manages to be the truly scary part. After all, it's safe to say that the world will never be threatened by a Palpatine-wannabe with fire powers, many people have been abused by a cruel, manipulative, and unforgiving parent.
    • If one is not, by nature, a fan of owls, one is advised to skip "The Library" (Season 2, episode 10)
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Guru Pathik's "reappearance" in Nightmares and Daydreams.
    • All of Aang's nightmares in general are classified as this.
  • No Yay: Bryke (jokingly) suggested "Bluezula" (as in a ship between Azula and her disguised brother's "Blue Spirit" persona) during Comic Con 2006's shipping slideshow. Infamously, one member of crowd belted out a very loud cry of "What is WRONG with you?"
  • Periphery Demographic:
    • Despite being initially targeted at elementary school-age kids, the show become quite popular (likely even more popular) among preteens and teenagers. And young adults in their twenties. And not-so-young adults.
    • Toph being a girl rather than a boy was supposed to appeal to the female demographic... which it did, but the showrunners probably weren't expecting her to be equally popular with teen to college-aged men.
    • One of the Avatar video games on the XBOX 360, The Burning Earth, is popular among achievement hunters due to the ease of getting 1000 points.
  • Periphery Hatedom: The series' status as a Sacred Cow is very established in the West, but hardcore anime fans only became more and more critical of it in the 2010s as they feel the series is just Americans using an Asian-based setting and characters to tell a story based on their culture; to start with, the whole concept of four elements is Greek. It doesn't help Avatar fans are known for attacking animes for being "outdated" and saying this series is the only good "anime", despite not even being Japanese, generating pre-conceived hostility towards the cartoon because of its fanbase.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Azula permanently sounding like she's trying to seduce her brother. Though that's assuming that it was done on accident, considering how much the creators and even her own voice actress have joked about her flirting with Zuko...
  • Rooting for the Empire: Azula's ability to provoke this almost rivals Grand Admiral Thrawn. People want to see her win simply because they know it will be awesome to watch.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Rivals Harry Potter for some of the fiercest battles (Zutara vs Kataang) of all time.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: This series is anything but subtle with its messages, and it's that much better for it. See the example page for more details.
  • Spoiled by the Format: The invasion of the Fire Nation on the day of the solar eclipse is built up as the final confrontation, and the final blow to end the war. Too bad it happens in episodes ten and eleven out of twenty-one.
  • Tethercat Principle: The last we ever see of Azula is her being chained to a grate, completely insane and screaming in despair. While Word of God stated that Azula was committed to a high security asylum, it's not actually shown in the series proper until the comic books that were written much later, where she's bound to a wheelchair in a straightjacket.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Toph's storyline concerning her parents never gets resolved. It gets a nod in "The Runaway", when she sends them a letter.
    • According to Word of God, it was at least confirmed that Sokka's hawk managed to deliver the letter.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The villagers in Zuko Alone. When they find out that the mysterious drifter who's been protecting them from corrupt Earth Kingdom soldiers is actually the prince of the Fire Nation, they practically spit in his face before telling him to get lost. Admittedly, it's natural that they'd be angry at the son of the tyrant responsible for upholding three generations worth of senseless death and destruction, but it also comes off as incredibly myopic and self righteous since Zuko has been nothing but helpful and considerate to them, and went as far as saving the life of an innocent child the very second he heard that he was in trouble. While a few good deeds not being enough to fix generations' worth of atrocities is a very important lesson for Zuko to learn, the execution makes the villagers look like a bunch of Ungrateful Bastards no better than the old man who sold Haru out to the Fire Nation after saving his life.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: The very boyish-looking Smellerbee, lampshaded by Iroh in "The Serpent's Pass".
  • Villain Decay: Zuko as Book 1 progressed. He hadn't even become all that conflicted about what he was doing yet, but he still kept on failing in his endeavors. No wonder Zhao wound up the final enemy of the season, despite Zuko being its main villain.
    • This may or may not be tied with his Character Development, however.
      • It's also somewhat ironic since Zuko got noticeably and progressively more powerful throughout season 1, It just became more and more apparent as the season went on that he had inadequate resources facing effectively impossible odds. From the very first episode, the only reason he was a threat to Aang at all were his raw cunning, desperation, and absolute refusal to give up.
    • Azula underwent it for plot-related reasons for four appearances straight in Book 3: because it took a while to get to the eclipse, she had nothing villainous to actually do, so she spent her screen time trolling Zuko, getting into wacky beach antics with her friends and brother, giving Zuko a briefing on their grandfather's life and death, and getting groomed by her servants for a meeting in which she was ultimately a Yes Man for her father. Afterwards, she comes back in full force and then some.
  • Vindicated by History: In terms of characters, Fire Lord Ozai. When the show first aired, he was hardly hated but definitely viewed as a much less interesting villain than his own children or even Zhao due to being a fairly standard Evil Overlord with zero redeeming qualities. This caused him to be written off as a somewhat underwhelming Flat Character or even a Generic Doomsday Villain propped up by a great showing as Aang's Final Boss and Mark Hamill's excellent voice work. But thanks to a surge of poorly-executed "sympathetic" villains in media from the new 10s and 20s (as well as an oversaturation of poorly and competently done sympathetic villains in general), fans began to find a newfound appreciation in Ozai's status as a purely evil villain who is still compelling in his own way, mainly due to being a genuinely threatening Badass of a man as well as being a chilling example of a monstrous father who did catastrophic damage to his own children. And it certainly helps that The Legend of Korra would go on to introduce the unanimously detested Unalaq, a hilariously underwhelming villain who does a far better job at embodying the criticisms leveled at Ozai than the man himself ever did.
  • What an Idiot!: Delectable tea or deadly poison, anyone?
    • This was somewhat justified due to the fact that Iroh and Zuko were out of food and supplies at the time, and Iroh was desperate for something to tide him over, even if it meant taking the huge risk with the flower being delectable tea or deadly poison.
    • A group try to force Aang into the Avatar State. It works, but Aang almost destroys the complex and everyone inside.
      • Of course, seeing as everyone in the complex is too young to have been alive when the last fully-realized Avatar was alive...
    • Iroh using firebending to heat his tea while he and Zuko are pretending to be Earth Kingdom refugees. Zuko even hangs a lampshade on it ("For a wise old man, that was a stupid move!")
    • Zhao destroying the moon. Best. Idea. Ever.
      • It makes a little bit of sense in context (waterbenders are powered by the moon, so destroying it would render them useless), but yeah. Still a terrible idea.
        • It wasn't that (from a purely military, in-the-moment tactical point of view) the idea itself was bad; it was doing it right in front of the rage-awakened Avatar. Seriously, he's the page image for a trope more famously paired with the freakin Hulk!
    • Toph sneaking up on Zuko without announcing her presence and in the dead of the night in the middle of the wilderness. She's lucky that her feet were the only part of her body to get burned when he woke up to the sound of someone creeping up on him and Firebent in a panic. And the worst part is that Zuko is treated as the one at fault for not having a good handle on his Firebending when Toph knew that Zuko's Heel Face Turn was sincere and could have avoided this stupid injury by announcing her presence way before walking into his literal line of fire.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: While it seems to be primary a kids show, it does has its fair share of Nightmare Fuel and especially in the third seasons deals with a series of very tough issues. The main character is the lone survivor of a genocide during which an entire ethnicity was completely whiped out and the 100 year long war seems to have spared not a single family from having lost relatives in combat or war crimes. Some episodes in the 3rd season even deal with an assassin hired to kill the protagonists and one of the heroes setting out to kill the murderer of her mother.
    • About the only tell (aside from the squeaky-clean language) is when characters are strangely incapable of outright suggesting they will kill each other. Further, while some characters are shown dying in the series, their deaths are never depicted outright (poked fun at in "Ember Island Players"). However, sometimes even Never Say "Die" can get lifted—such as showing Gyatso's remains a whopping two episodes into the series.
  • The Woobie:
    • Most of the cast has had their moments of this. The core three members of the Gaang have all lost someone important to them, after all. Aang especially, since he lost his entire ethnic group.
    • This show has two diametrically opposed Woobies at the same time, in Aang and Zuko... especially after "The Storm" where we learn about Aang's feelings of guilt over running away from home and Zuko's abuse and exile at the hands of his own father (demonstrated nicely here).
    • Katara in episodes such as "The Southern Raiders", which focus on the grief she feels over losing her mother.
    • Sokka gets some of this from time to time, too, especially in "The Waterbending Master", "The Siege of the North", and "The Boiling Rock". It's not fun to be a nonbender in a cast full of Benders, especially when you lose the first girl you ever loved.
    • Then there's Azula, who goes from one of the greatest Magnificent Bastards to The Woobie over the course of only four episodes. And it actually works.
    • Appa during Season 2 -- the episode "Appa's Lost Days" has him go through hell as he's captured and abused by a cruel circus troupe.
    • Iroh, in an Iron Woobie kind of way, in that he doesn't let it show very often. For most of the series, he looks like a funny, yet awesome character who always has Zuko's best interests at heart... But then we find out that he lost his son in the siege against Ba Sing Se that he led, and it goes downhill from there.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
    • Aang in his Avatar State usually qualifies for this, mainly because it's usually triggered by severe anguish and emotional turmoil: finding out that he really is the last Airbender (and coming to that realization after finding the corpse of his mentor/father figure Monk Gyatso), watching overzealous Earth Kingdom soldiers almost kill the girl he loves, having Appa kidnapped and muzzled by Sandbenders... as genuinely scary as he can get, you'll still want to give the poor kid a hug.
    • Hama. Kidnapped and imprisoned by the Fire Nation army as a teenager, prevented from bending her native element (water), it's no wonder she took her only chance of escape, by turning the guards into People Puppets by bending their body fluids. But then she snuck into the Fire Nation and started kidnapping innocent civilians with the same technique she used on the prison guards...
    • Heibai. Once a kind and gentle panda spirit turned into a horrific, monstrous berserker out of anger towards the Fire Nation burning down the forest he once protected.
  1. ↑ Well, that was fun.
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