Headscratchers / Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Using the Avatar State to hide underwater

• In episode 1, when Aang went into the Avatar State during the storm after the comet festival, why didn't he use his powers to escape the storm and return to the Air Temple, rather than freezing himself underwater for 100 years? Couldn't the combined wisdom and bending powers of all the Avatars produce a solution that didn't require putting Aang out of action indefinitely?
  • Aang still needs to know how to use the Avatar State, without full control freezing Aang and Appa to protect them is the best he could do.
  • It was pretty clear Aang did not choose to use the Avatar State at that moment, he was "possessed" by one of the other Avatars. As to why, maybe it was fate that the Avatar's arrival be delayed by a century that time.

Aang's Ice Sphere's Journey

• During the 100 years after the Air Nomad genocide, how did Aang's ice sphere get to the South Pole? Surely the Fire Nation sent out search parties after the genocide to look for surviving Air Nomads; didn't anyone notice the big ball of ice bobbing conspicuously on the surface of the sea? And why did it take the Southern Water Tribe so long to notice the conspicuous sphere of ice not far from their usual fishing grounds?
  • A few things probably went into this. The Fire Nation may have assumed that all hand were lost on the ship carrying Aang. Also, most icebergs (which Aang's sphere qualified as) are A) opaque and B) usually given a wide berth by ships since they tend to have the larger part underwater. The ships probably didn't get close enough to see it was strange. When he got to the Southern Water Tribe's fishing grounds, they got much closer. It is also possible that the ice of the sphere sheared off revealing a translucent face so they could see him.
    • In the animation series it was underwater until it came up because of Katara. An brief flashback of Sozin hunting down the Avatar showed his ship overpassing the iceberg in South Pole waters not long after the genocide of Airbenders happened.

How was complete genocide of the Air Nomads achieved?

• How is it possible that the Fire Nation tracked down and murdered every single member of a race of people who can fly? Even if Sozin somehow managed to prevent every single person other than Aang from escaping the Southern Air Temple on the night of the genocide, was every single member of a race of nomads really present at the festival? Surely there were at least a few other people who were too lazy, infirm, irreverent, antisocial, or forgetful to show up.
  • Like in the original animated series, the initial attack was merely to topple the Air Nomad nation into a disorganized mess, with nearly all the leaders slaughtered. The next step is hunting down the survivors... and they have a hundred years to complete the genocide with a relatively small group. Not to mention that any surviving Air Nomads, assuming they did survive everything, would likely hid their heritage and luckiest survivors would simply assimilate into the Earth Kingdom and just never teach their children Airbending. And since Airbending requires high spiritually, the practice simply died out until Aang emerged.
  • In a source material it was revealed even the people who survived the attacks went into hiding, but they were drawn out by rumors of other survivors which the Fire Nation used to eliminate them since they wanted no survivors which was Sozin's exact intention.

Katara's uncontrolled waterbending

• In episode 1, Katara accidentally cracks open the sphere containing Aang while trying to waterbend. If Katara's waterbending ambiently breaks things around her, how has no one noticed her practicing it? And why would she decide to practice it in an alcove made of ice that could easily collapse on her? Why not just take a canoe out to a remote location and practice where no one could stumble across her?
  • Katara's water bending is naturally powerful, but she has no clue how to control without instruction. She only practice in a very remote area which is the Fire Nation ship, which is regarded as haunted.
  • I assumed that it was more the Aang, or at least the Avatar state reacting to Katara waterbending near his sphere, causing him to icebend out of the sphere.
  • Katara may have started out bending away from the village where she wouldn't be observed. Without witnessing her causing ice to shear off, who would notice another piece of an iceberg in the South Pole region?

Bodyguards for the Avatar

• If the Air Nomads knew that the Fire Nation was on the warpath, it wouldn't be difficult for them to deduce that the Avatar would be a target for assassination. Why didn't they assign Aang any bodyguards, or otherwise take measures to ensure that he couldn't disappear in the middle of the night?
  • Aang was not supposed to revealed as the Avatar until his 16th birthday. The show has Aang being told of his Avatar status at the beginning of the story and on that same day (specifically that very night), the Fire Nation attacked. Sozin struck fast for a reason. The Air Normads simply assumed that Sozin wanted to conquer the Earth Kingdom before the Avatar officially gets revealed. They failed to realize that Sozin created a diversion.

Kyoshi's mercy for Zhao

• After lecturing Aang about how the Avatar needed to be "a mighty, merciless warrior," why did Kyoshi avoid killing or doing any lasting harm to Zuko, Zhao, and the Fire Nation soldiers who were defiling her sacred village and attacking her priestesses?
  • Because her purpose there was not to kill people. If she had tried, Aang would have either ended the Avatar State early or later felt really guilty for failing to end it early. Her purpose was to demonstrate to Aang how overwhelming force can solve problems, not to take his job for the cycle.

Having an Avatar-to-Avatar chat during a Fire Nation invasion

• Why didn't Kyoshi pause her chat with Aang to go save her village as soon as Zhao showed up? Couldn't they put their discussion on hold and finish talking after the Fire Nation soldiers were defeated?
  • A similar thing happened in the cartoon when Aang first met Roku and his friends were captured by opposing forces. In both cases Aang allowed them to take over his body to deal with the opposing firebenders when the conversation between the two Avatars was over.

Kyoshi Warrior gender restrictions?

• Why aren't there any male Kyoshi Warriors? If it's a girls-only thing, why was everyone so chill with Suki teaching Sokka their fighting techniques and giving him their equipment?
• This can have many answers:

- In the original, the Kyoshi Warriors are originally members of a self-defense school for girls and women. The founding of this school occurred centuries before the Age of Aang as the Avatar. At a time when it was even more uncommon for women to fight, especially without bending and in a culture (Earth Kingdom) where fighting was very much based on brute force. The Kyoshi style was a more practical fighting style for women because it was based on a mixture of airbending style and Fire Nation military fighting style, which was aimed at using their opponent's strength against them. The port of Yokoya was originally an agrarian village until Kyoshi transformed it into an island, and after that event the girls trained by Kyoshi became the island's main defense. This may raise several hypotheses:- Hypothesis one: the Kyoshi Warriors are still the main and most notorious group of warriors on the island because of tradition. But that doesn't mean they're the only ones. Maybe there are male soldiers we haven't seen yet.- Hypothesis two: the male soldiers went to fight in the war and the Kyoshi Warriors, as they were the designated guardians of the village, remained.- Hypothesis three: There is technically nothing stopping men from joining the Kyoshi Warriors, but because their fighting style is especially designed for women, many opt for other types of training. Suki training Sokka, even in a style designed for women, works because he lacks formal combat training.- Hypothesis four: pure and simple tradition. They are not opposed to men fighting, but like the formal armies of other nations, there is a gender predominance in the arts of war focused on women while men do the region's original agricultural work.

Omashu's involvement in the war

• Why was Omashu not involved in the war when Aang was awakened? When did Bumi pull out from the war and why would he if this war has been going on for a hundred years?
  • The war has been going on for 100 years and Fire Nation has conquered 90% to 98% of the Earth Kingdom by the start of the series with Oma's being the last strong holdout according to Jet although it was bound together inevitably fall since they had spies in the city years before which lead to its off screen capture in the season finale. As for Bumi his whole story since the century is majority unknown but it's heavily implied the war messed with his head.

Bumi's anger towards Aang

• Why was Bumi so angry with Aang after hearing how Aang was frozen in the iceberg for a hundred years? Considering how Aang being frozen in the iceberg was just a coincidence this time and not him trying to run away from his responsibilities. Even when Aang talks about how he needs to go to the Northern Water Tribe, Bumi chooses to keep Aang as a prisoner. Aang even reminds him that his own people were killed and Aang feels guilt over his absence.
  • It's heavily implied Bumi had hard choices to make when he first became king as who to give more food to the soldiers or orphanage because food had to be rationed which meant whoever didn't the food suffered major repercussions. It made him bitter because the world assumed that Avatar was truly dead and wouldn't be reborn although even if Aang was reborn as Waterbender which would delayed having a advantage against the Fire Nation since that Waterbender had to train not only in their natural element, but 3 others (Air would been impossible to learn for obvious reasons), (Fire would been difficult to find someone willing to risk everything to teach an enemy of their nation the element) Earth would been the easiest element to learn. Also in Avatar case like Roku it took him until he was 28 to become an fully realized Avatar because not all Avatars are fast learners like Aang or Kyoshi are.

Sozin's complicated tip-off plot

• Why did Sozin use such a complex and precarious scheme to make the Air Nomads believe that his first target was the Earth Kingdom? Why would he make a plan that involved allowing a hostile outsider into his secret areas and putting his soldiers and palace at risk? If any of his guards killed the earthbender accidentally, or decided to snitch that they'd been ordered to let the earthbender escape, or acted too unconvincingly and made the earthbender suspect that the escape was scripted, the whole plan would fall apart. Why didn't Sozin just save everyone the trouble and openly declare war on the Earth Kingdom?
  • Because Sozin wanted to kill the Avatar and knew everyone would rush to Earth Kingdom's defenses while he and his army slaughtered unsuspecting Airbenders who were known to have the Avatar reborn into their element. He was hoping to kill the Avatar permanently if Aang went into the Avatar State or delay the Avatar from stopping the since the spirit would went into an Water Tribe newborn if he had died regularly.
  • I always assumed that the plan was to effectively rapidly force through a complete Avatar Cycle, to end up with an Avatar from the Fire Nation, indoctornated to support their plans of conquest.
  • It's also possible that this wasn't the primary plan, but a failsafe that worked. He didn't let an agent into the palace, someone got in and stole some false evidence that he had planted for just such an eventuality.

Suki sparring with Sokka

• When Sokka was sparring with Suki by the river, why did she grab his arm and put him in a chokehold? He was still stretching when she did that, making it look like she attacked him.
  • It was basically a lesson of real life combat. Sokka was unprepared and did not have a guard up at all against someone who wanted to fight him. If he was that lax against an actual enemy, he would be dead. If Sokka truly wants to be a warrior and defender of his village, he needs to be prepared to fight at all times.

Aang Waterbending

• What plot-related reason does Aang have for not practicing Waterbending? Why couldn't Aang have demonstrated even a little Waterbending when helping Katara get a better handle on her own skills?
  • Plot-wise, from Aang's perspective he's only known he was the Avatar for less than a week during those first couple scenes. It's unclear if he's even tried waterbending yet at that point. Presumably he practices a bit off-screen throughout the season, but since Katara's not actively teaching him, he's not confident enough to use it in combat.

Pakku teaching Aang

• Why didn't Pakku teach Aang any Waterbending? Even though Aang didn't practice his bending, Pakku could have at least taught him the basics. Was so upset that Aang failed to live up to the hype built up around him that he decided not to teach Aang?
  • At the time, they knew the Fire Nation was almost at their doorstep. As the best Waterbender in the North, and an advisor to the chief, his immediate focus would be on the defense of his home. Pakku had no time to give him any lessons that would be useful in the upcoming fight, and would do more good helping come up with the battle plans.

Water Tribes' blue dye

• How do the Water Tribes get access to blue dye at the South Pole? And how do they make enough of it to dye every single article of clothing they own?
  • Plenty of fish and shellfish are used in dyes in the real world. Presumably there's some extremely common animal that is suitable for making dyes.

Koh's totem

• Why did Roku take Koh's totem? Was it somehow connected to Koh's powers or did Roku steal it in his youth and had no justifiable reason?
  • As this is original to the Netflix adaptation, we can not know for sure at the time. Roku may have done it to avenge the loss of Kuruk's fiancé Ummi, who Koh stole the face of and kidnapped. Or he could have found himself in the Spirit World for some other reason and naturally come across Koh's lair.

Bumi knowing about Aang

• How did Bumi know that Aang was the Avatar? It wasn't announced before he disappeared, and the news hadn't spread far by the time they met again. Aang could have just been an airbender survivor.
  • Bumi knew the Avatar was going be an Airbender and 16 years after Aang disappeared it would became clear that The Avatar Cycle didnt go to an Waterbender because either the cycle was broken if the Avatar was killed in the Avatar State or Airbender holding the responsibility of Avatar went into hiding like an coward like the cynical population of the remaining 3 nations believed. Bumi recognized Aang and knew his childhood friend was powerful so when he showed up a century later not having aged a day. Bumi instantly knew Aang was the Avatar even before Aang told him about the iceberg he made inadvertently with the Avatar State which he was trapped in for a century.

Sacrificing the 41st Division

• Based on the military unit positions shown in the war room, why does the 41st Division need to be sent to distract the Earth Kingdom forces? The Earth Kingdom's forces are atop a peninsula whose base is controlled by the Fire Nation's army and whose water is controlled by the Fire Nation's navy. Strategically, the Earth Kingdom's forces are surrounded. The Fire Nation can simply starve the Earth Kingdom's soldiers out, while bypassing any potential impediment the Earth Kingdom's forces provide to supply ships by taking a different water way.
  • There are plenty of strategic reasons why sacrificing a division might by a good idea. Maybe Earth Kingdom reinforcements were coming to break the siege and they didn't have time to wait them out. Maybe the majority of the forces were needed elsewhere, and the situation needed to be resolved quickly. Not to mention that one of the themes is the Fire Nation "burning the weak for the sake of the strong" even when it's not actually necessary.
• because they are very bad strategists, that is to say, to spend more than 100 years fighting a war where you started it and whose resident god was missing and you could only conquer or destroy 2 things: the southern water tribe and the air nomads?

Attacking the Northern Water Tribe As A Diversion

• How does the Fire Nation attacking the Northern Water Tribe improve their odds of taking Omashu? The Northern Water Tribe isn't in a condition to support Omashu. Even if they were, couldn't the Fire Nation just use their Navy to interdict any Water Tribe support? If the Fire Nation was trying to preoccupy the Avatar, it's unclear why the Avatar simply couldn't win the battle in the North Pole before returning to Omashu and turning the tides there.
  • It wasn't just a distraction. Ozai was genuinely hoping that the North would fall and/or the Avatar would be handled. But it also helped because anyone who saw the massive force heading north would assume that he wasn't making any other major offensives at the same time. He didn't need the navy to attack Omashu, so he was able to sneak in a small but powerful force over land while their defenses were relatively low.

Air Nomad Reconnaissance

• After learning of the Fire Nation's plans to attack the Earth Kingdom, why didn't the Air Nomads help conduct reconnaissance on the Fire Nation's positions, potentially revealing the ruse?
  • The world was just starting to get ready for the attack; that's why the Air Nomads just barely told Aang he was the Avatar. Furthermore, the Nomads are pacifists. They have no military experience. Their plan was "go down to the Earth Kingdom and they'll tell us how to fight," not "instantly switch to a military footing and begin scouting missions."

No Fleeing the Fire Nation Sneak Attack

• Why didn't any of the Air Nomads try flying away during the Fire Nation attack?
  • Presumably they tried, and failed. The Fire Nation was well aware of the capabilities of airbenders, and of their tendency to avoid conflict. And as noted higher on the page, any survivors were found and killed over the next hundred years through various means, such as by baiting them in with airbender relics.

Why Does Zhao Have to Send a Letter?

• In the original show, when Aang entered the Avatar State for the first time, it triggered the glow in Avatar artifacts, paintings, statues, in every nation around the world, signaling to them that the Avatar had finally returned. "Oh, it's an adaptation; they must have changed and removed that," but then I remembered how all of Zuko's small Avatar totems glowed when Aang emerged from the ice while exiting the Avatar State. Aang even enters the Avatar State two more times before Zhao sends his letter. "Oh, Ozai must have obviously known ahead of time and only showed Azula the letter to make her jealous of Zuko!" But, no, at the end of Episode 2, Ozai says out loud to himself (and by himself) that "The Avatar has returned," so he learned of the Avatar's return...through Zhao's letter. So, why wouldn't the Fire Nation already know that the Avatar had returned? They have Fire Sages, right? Isn't that their one and only job at this point?
  • All the lights going off was a hint that something had happened involving the Avatar, yes. And the Fire Sages confirmed it. But finding the Avatar is something else entirely, and that is what Zhao confirmed. He's not just off on some island doing Avatar things, he's close enough for the Fire Nation to theoretically grab.
  • Perhaps the glow effect was more localized in this adaptation. Of the Fire Nation soldiers close enough to the South Pole to experience the aftereffects of Aang’s return, Zuko could very well be the only one Avatar-obsessed enough to have authentic idols that were sufficiently spiritually infused or whatever to start glowing. Ever since the Fire Nation decided to murder the Avatar, I doubt the Yangchen Funko Pops have been selling too well among firebenders. Zuko, meanwhile, has become a borderline Avatar historian over the past three years of hunting Aang, and it would make sense for him to have picked up some Avatar relics along the way.