‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ live-action ending, explained

The explosive end of season 1 of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t just a visual feast, but set up a whole lot of important storylines for the upcoming second season. Not only did we see Aang tap into the immense power of the spirits, but viewers were also given a glimpse into the dastardly plans of Daniel Dae Kim’s unreasonably good-looking Fire Lord Ozai.

Viewers unfamiliar with the extensive lore of the show might have been left a little confused with what happened, but thankfully Avatar nerds like us are more than happy to become annoying men on first dates and explain everything in painstaking detail.

Ozai’s dastardly plans and the return of Sozin’s comet

After watching the Northern Water Tribe manage to fend off a fire nation assault on the North Pole (with some help from the Gaang and an angry ocean spirit), and Princess Yue sacrificing her life to replace the moon spirit (I promise this all makes sense in the show), viewers were transported back to the Fire Nation, where we saw the chisel-jawed Fire Lord Ozai hearing news of the defeat.

The duplicitous and ruthless Fire Lord didn’t seem too fussed about the heavy losses he incurred, nor the fact that his exiled son Prince Zuko may have been among them. It was then revealed that the unlikely attempt to overthrow the Northern Water Tribe was actually a cover, and the real mission had been led by Princess Azula to finally take the Kingdom of Omashu. This mirrored the very start of the season, where Ozai’s grandfather Sozin leaked plans of an assault on the Earth Kingdom so that he would have a clear run at massacring the Air Nomads.

We were treated to victorious Azula addressing her army, which sets us up nicely for her being the main season 2 villain. Ozai also mentioned the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se being the only city left that isn’t under Fire Nation control, which means we’re sure to see the magnificent walled city in all its glory in season 2.

His mention of Zuko might very well lead to a different role for the exiled prince and his companion, Uncle Iroh, than we saw in the animated version. In the cartoon original, season 2 saw Iroh and Zuko go into hiding in the Earth Kingdom by pretending to be refugees, as Ozai felt the failure at the North Pole was on their shoulders, so he sent Azula after them. However, here it seems that Zuko and Iroh aren’t the Fire Nation’s primary target. However, it’s unlikely that storyline will change too much, given how important it is to the rest of the plot of the series, as well as a potential Zutara ship.

However, all of this isn’t the main thing to take away from the ending. That honor falls upon the fact that Ozai’s sages appear to have figured out how to read the stars, and realized that Sozin’s Comet is set to return.

The comet, which in Avatar lore comes round every century, bestows an awesome power upon fire benders, much in the same way that the full moon gives water benders a greater power. When it last came round Ozai’s grandfather Sozin used it to attack the Air Nation to great effect, so there’s no telling what a bloodthirsty Ozai will do when it returns (well, there is if you’ve watched the original, and it’s not good for the rest of the world).

Aang the water and earth bender

On a lighter note, the season also ended with the Gaang leaving the Northern Water Tribe so that Aang could finally begin mastering the other elements, specifically water and earth. Katara looks set to be his waterbending master after she showed prodigious talent, but who will teach him earthbending is up in the air.

One candidate may have been King Bumi, but as we saw he is under lock and chain in a newly captured Omashu. If the group heads back there, they’re sure to have to put up a fight. And then there’s the matter of finding a firebending teacher in a world in which the Fire Nation sees all outsiders as an enemy…