Ron Does Stuff

Well would you look at that I have time and inclination take on another episode of Netflix’s live action adaptation of Avatar the Last Airbender! Let’s jump right in!

The previous episode had a really great cliffhanger, with Aang having to go to Fire Nation territory to get information from Avatar Roku on how to get his friends and the Earth Kingdom villagers back from Koh the Face Stealer.

But before we get to that we get another Fire Nation flashback with Iroh being a better father figure to Zuko than Ozai ever was. This really is one thing that I really like about this live action adaptation and I hope it only gets better in the next two seasons.

This is also the episode where they show Zuko’s back story and I actually think it’s the perfect time to introduce it. They had to do it much earlier in the animated series because the characters had to travel with Zuko for more than 20 episodes and it just would be unbelievable for them and the audience to stick with Zuko’s petulant behavior for that long. But with this abbreviated number of episodes and the deeper layers that the Fire Nation characters have been given this first season, this just comes at the right time.

Meanwhile, Aang finally gets to meet Roku and he’s a much more congenial Avatar compared to Kyoshi. I also liked the additional lore they’ve given Koh — which probably was in the comics that I never read — giving him a vulnerability that audiences will either love or hate, depending on how they view him. Because I can totally understand keeping Koh something ancient and primal but at the same time this show needs to add something to the original work to justify its existence and I think is one of the better additions that they’ve made. One change I don’t like, however, is the constant repeating of how the Avatar needs to be a lone wolf when it comes to his mission. It’s a tired trope and I am so over it.

This being the episode where we finally get the backstory to Zuko’s scar, of course he and the other Fire Nation characters get the spotlight — special mention to Admiral Zhao who has that right amount of misplaced arrogance that you just love to hate in a villain. But you can argue that great Fire Nation characters have been the norm for most of the show’s first season and I really hope that this imbalance is corrected in the next season because as much as I like these new Fire Nation parts I don’t want them to come at the expense of other characters.

Aang and Zuko’s escape is another high point of this series that FINALLY involves more than just Fire Nation characters. I genuinely had my mouth open during the whole sequence and was one of the moments of wonder that I had that almost matched the ones I felt when I was matching the animated series. More of this!

The character moment between Zuko and Aang is also nicely done, but that is immediately overtaken by the Agni Kai between Zuko and Ozai. Once again, a Fire Nation moment has me almost to the point of tears. They never showed this in the animated series — understandably! — but fleshing it out now in the live action adaptation really hits you like a punch in the gut. Also kudos for fully utilizing Dallas Liu’s martial arts skills!

Also, were these ending speeches in the previous episodes? Because I honestly can’t remember and in these past two episodes they’ve been a really great way to close the story. They’re really compelling and have been close to moving me to tears at times. Definitely one of the high points of this adaptation!