Avatar The Last Airbender Spoiler Free Review

Avatar The Last Airbender on Netflix, season two, is a fantastic step up and a fantastic step in the right direction. This franchise and their leaders listened to the corrections that the fandom had about the first season and completely improved on everything from visuals to characters and their choices, to the bending styles, to the fighting styles, plus the addition of the new characters, which are completely phenomenal.

Yes, there are some hits and misses within anything that is thrown to the world to consume, based in art, because art is subjective. You can never 100% please anyone. With that being said, I am rooting for season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender and to continue the journey of Team Aang. Let's break down the characters just a little bit, seeing as how this is a spoiler-free review.

Let's go with Aang. He is an adult at this point, lol. He has grown so much in and out of character. The actor portrays Aang as a stoic yet unsure of himself, but also coming to terms with being a bender, the Avatar, the only one who has to make life-and-death decisions. He's fun, quirky, charismatic, but also lighthearted, emotional, and kind of sad when you think about it. He's still a child, but he has the weight of the world literally on his shoulders, and now, he has the weight of his friends' lives and everyone that he cares about on his shoulders as well. Every decision he makes has to be completely right, because if he makes the wrong choice, people will die.

We have Katara, his right hand, his girlfriend, lol. She's powerful. From season one to season two, she is a completely different character. She's a master at this point of waterbending. She's trained Aang in the art of waterbending and survival. She's a formidable opponent. You do not want to get on Katara's bad side at all. She will literally wash you away (pun intended).

Moving on to her brother Sokka. He's the only one on team Aang that has no bending power, but that does not make him a weak link. He is just as powerful. He fights with his mind, with his wit, but also he's physically fit. His fight scenes have improved from season one to this season here. He's someone you can trust to do what’s right even when faced with impossible challenges. 

The new addition to the team is Toph, the master earthbender. The actress (Miya Cech) who plays her does a fantastic job of translating the animated character to live action. She's perfect from the mannerisms to the body movement. Toph is a character that’s strong and silent. She may be blind, but she can see everything, literally, as she can sense the vibrations, your movements of what you're going to do before you even think it.

We have Suki and the Kyoshi warriors. That's a whole squad. Think of the Dora Milaje from Black Panther and Marvel. That's a team that will completely beat your ass and ask questions never. Suki is another person who doesn't have bending, but she's a formidable opponent, one of the best fighters in the entire franchise of The Last Airbender. She’s also the love interest of Sokka. 

Then we kind of have an on-and-off-again team member, Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation. Wait, put a pin in that. I'ma get on him later. 

We have Azula and her team (Ty Lee & Mai), which is Zuko's sister. She's Princess Azula. She is badass. When you see her coming your way, fall to your knees and pray to the Lord, because you're going to die. She plays no games. It's, 'I'm here for a mission. You're in my way of that mission, or you are that mission. I'm taking your life in a flashy way.' Her abilities are crazy, her fighting style is crazy, and the way she used her fire powers and lightning abilities are crazy. I'm using the word crazy so many times because Azula is amazingly CRAZY, lol.

Back to Zuko. He's a hit and miss for me. I liked his character arc in the animated show. This here is live action, so there's a lot of liberties that needed to be taken from the animated show into live action. The actor does everything he can with the script that he's given, so it's not against the actor, but he's kind of a wet blanket here. I don't know what else to say. His fire powers are okay, but Azula, outshines him in every way while showcasing the Fine Nations training. 

Zuko really let me down this season. His indecisiveness about being a good person or trying to prove yourself to his father, who is someone who completely disregarded him, still upsets me. I know it's from the animated show, but this live action has been taking so many liberties with adjusting story elements, taking and removing elements to fit a live action narrative. I believe they should have altered that for Zuko, but again, that's just my personal opinion.

Moving on to Uncle Iroh. He is still the heart of the show. He is still one of the best characters on the show, animated and live action. He's a formidable opponent when going up against him. He's someone who loves hard and who wants to teach people he loves and even complete strangers how to be a better person because of his past and how dark his past was. He's aware of it. He's not trying to erase it, but he's trying to move past it and create a new history for him and his nephew Zuko.

There are other characters that I want to keep secret that show up in the live action. If you know about the animated show, it won't be a surprise. Some of them are hit and miss, but overall I enjoyed what they brought to the show, especially Azula and her trio. They're completely CRAZY. I'll call them Fire Nation's Charlie's Angels (Madison’s team), lol. GOOGLE THAT. 

Watching each of the characters go through the motions from episode to episode, improving, diving into who they are as a person, as a bender, as a warrior, as a friend, really solidifies its place in storytelling and narrative storytelling. Each character has its place. Each character shines. The stakes are super high this season. 

There’s Sozin’s Comet coming, which will give the Fire Nation every bit of ammunition they need to take out the Earth Kingdom and pretty much rule the entire world under an iron thumb of the Fire Nation's rule.

Without going into much details about the story, because you have to completely experience this for yourself on Netflix (out now), you'll be completely immersed in the world of Avatar. 

With all that being said, I recommend this show for fans and newcomers, or people who just want to enjoy and escape their world for 6 to 7 hours. Binge watch Avatar: The Last Airbender (7 episodes), and trust me, you will want to continue this story as soon as it ends. 

8/10