Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” Season 2 Bends Familiar Elements into Something New

The live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series continues with a character-focused adaptation of Aang’s earthbending studies and Team Avatar’s time in Ba Sing Se.

SPOILER WARNING: This review contains spoilers for season 2 of the Avatar: The Last Airbender live action series and seasons 2 and 3 of the original animated series.

Fans were divided over whether the first season of the new Avatar: The Last Airbender was an effective adaptation, as it made several omissions and changes from the original animated show. Overall, I preferred the adaptation’s second season to its first. To me, season two felt more cohesive, and I felt as though there were fewer significant omissions.

This season begins with Aang, Katara, and Sokka helping refugees from Omashu travel to Ba Sing Se. During their journey, they meet Toph, who becomes Aang’s earthbending teacher. In these early episodes of the season, I thought the series had some issues with its pacing. The season had a lot of story to cover, which resulted in a few plot points feeling a bit rushed. Toph’s debut episode, for example, actually focuses more on Zuko’s completely separate storyline rather than on her and Team Avatar. Thankfully, the following episode gives more focus to Toph, as she begins to teach Aang earthbending, but it still felt a bit jarring to me.

Once the characters reach Ba Sing Se, the pacing becomes a lot smoother. A major critique of the remake’s first season was that Aang didn’t really do any waterbending. Thankfully, this season devotes a lot of time to Aang learning to earthbend and applying his new skills while in the city. Another surprising omission from the first season was Aang’s romantic feelings for Katara, which do start in this season.

Aang and Team Avatar try to meet with the city’s king to warn him about Sozin’s Comet and to ask for his help in stopping the Fire Nation. At every turn, they are thwarted, as Ba Sing Se is actually controlled by the shadow dictator Long Feng.

In a change from the animated series, Long Feng pretends to be an ally to Aang. This manipulation really highlights just how Long Feng was able to maintain such a tight hold over Ba Sing Se, but I did think there were times where he almost seemed to overshadow Azula, the primary antagonist of the season. I also thought Aang was a bit out-of-character harsh to his friends after Long Feng’s deception was revealed and he convinced King Kuei to distrust Team Avatar.

Overall, I found the Netflix adaptation to be at its best when it used its longer episode runtimes and higher age rating to expand on elements from the original animated series. While this approach and its execution understandably may not appeal to every fan of the first show, I personally liked that the adaptation tried to forge its own path rather than blandly rehashing the animated series.

Something I really liked about this season was its effort to give each member of Team Avatar their own character arc. In the original series, “The Painted Lady” was a single episode that the remake expands into a multi-episode storyline. In the adaptation, Katara dons a disguise to help civilians in Ba Sing Se, including people formerly from the Fire Nation, so that she can avoid recognition by the Dai Li. The parallels drawn between Katara and Zuko-as-the-Blue-Spirit are really interesting and add an additional layer to their iconic interactions at Lake Laogai, which are similarly included in the live-action series.

Season two also develops the relationship between Sokka and Suki. Initially, it bothered me that the show was launching into this storyline so quickly (Yue only died in the previous episode!), so I was very relieved that Sokka’s grief was further developed in later episodes. It also expands on Sai the mechanist and Professor Zei’s roles in the story, with both serving as mentor figures for Sokka this season.

Toph’s storyline is quite a big departure from the animated series. In the adaptation, she learns that her family’s companies had helped the Fire Nation to manufacture weapons. I am interested to see if this will be referenced again in season three when Team Avatar is actually inside the Fire Nation.

In the animated series, Zuko already had a fantastic arc that unfurled over multiple season two episodes – there’s a reason his redemption arc is considered one of the best ever written. Like in the animated series, Zuko ends the season returning to the Fire Nation, but the motivation behind his decision comes across quite differently in Netflix’s version. In the live-action series, it’s ultimately Zuko and Azula’s love for their mother Ursa that causes them to re-ally. While I do like all of the season three foreshadowing, this plot point did leave me with some questions. I understand that the siblings’ decision to be together to honour their mother’s wishes, but Ursa had also wanted them to leave the Fire Nation, and this is not referenced. Will Zuko bring this up in season three? Will he ask Azula to leave the Fire Nation with him (or am I just writing fanfiction)?

Of all the character arcs, Iroh’s felt the most emotional. Through both live-action seasons, Lu Ten’s death has been overtly referenced much more than in the original series. This season really foregrounds Iroh’s guilt from his attack on Ba Sing Se and his subsequent abdication, highlighting his impact on the Ba Sing Se civilians, the people of the Fire Nation, and Zuko.

As for the Gaang’s animal companions, I thought there was some improvement over their depiction in season one, in which both Appa and Momo felt very ignored by the story. Appa was much more prominent this season, possibly because his capture and his bond with Aang were so important to the storyline. Momo, however, still felt really pushed to the sidelines – it felt like the Gaang barely even talked about him.

More generally, the series included several references to the original Avatar, from Sokka hilariously drinking cactus juice to the far more serious “There is no war in Ba Sing Se”. Like in the first season, there are unfortunately some needlessly dark and violent moments, but I did find this more toned down than it was in season one.

Overall, I’m not sure if season two will win over every fan of the original series, but I personally liked several elements of it and am optimistically looking forward to season three.

Author: Iris Autumn

Iris has a degree in Digital Media and a passion for writing. She has published in cultural arts magazine The Artifice. Iris’ interests include intertextuality, media portrayals of fandom and creativity, and stories that are campy.

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