47
votes
What's your favorite episode from Avatar: The Last Airbender?
I really enjoy Tales of Ba Sing Se. It's really nice just watching them live their lives in the big city. It's somewhat a filler episode, but unlike the filler in Naruto or something, the plot still incrementally moves along and doesn't linger too long on any one character.
Honestly, it has to be the Agni Kai between Zuko and Azula. It’s just so well animated, the music is amazing, and it’s so emotionally charged. It’s truly a piece of art.
Agreed. As much as the nerd in me screams 'THE DRILL WAS AWESOME' the sheer emotions, and the slow buildup to Azula becoming a fearful, mess of a fire lord while Zuko found and reformed himself over the series is just so good.
As much as you hate Azula, it's difficult not to feel pity for her at the end. She ends up all alone with no real parental figure and it shows. Whereas Zuko had Iroh.
And God the music, animation and voice acting really makes it complete. You can really feel Zuko being solid while Azula is just breaking down.
SECRET TUNNEL!!!!
For real. I love this episode. Song was my ringtone for the longest time.
I came here to post those same two words.
Also...
...AND DIE!
"The Puppet Master" (Season 3, Episode 8) was one of the first ones that came to mind.
Even after multiple rewatches over the last 16 years, this episode still stands out as one of the darkest episodes in the series. Avatar: The Last Airbender does not shy away from depicting the effects of war, but it's usually shown at an arm's length to keep it palatable for their audience of children.
So Hama's imprisonment stands out to me as one of the most striking views of cruelty in the show: she was kept in isolation, tortured (per the wiki), and only found salvation by inventing the most disturbing bending technique in the series, bloodbending.
And all this leads to Hama perpetuating a cycle of pain and revenge by:
The episode has no happy ending. Hama's plot to imprison the village fails, but she succeeds in prolonging the cycle by forcibly teaching Katara how to bloodbend.
Honestly, I don't know if I really like the episode all the much. I think the effort I put into seeing it as a kid keeps it top of mind; I swear Nickelodeon intentionally aired it as little as possible. Every viewing of it leaves me with feelings of irresolution, since a cycle of revenge leaves no one the victor. But I appreciate the show runners' willingness to go somewhere really dark. That dive into the the dark sets up Hama as a foil for Katara, a setup which pays off later in the season as Katara goes through a mirrored story ("The Southern Raiders").
Also:
Leaves from the vine. Falling so slow...
Great analysis. What did you think of Korra season one and bloodbending's central position in it?
Season One of Korra was my favorite season of the show, only rivaled by Season
FourThree. I really enjoyed the mystery they were able to build, and they were able to expand on bloodbending in a way that felt consistent to the rules of the world.edit: Three
Big agree. It was a good way of dealing with the fact that they wrote such a powerful thing into the world. And Korra's S3-S4 arc is some of the best TV out there. Ugh. Both shows (ATLA and LoK) had no business being as good as they were, being "just" kids' cartoons. The big-picture writing in them is better than most "adult" shows I've seen.
Whoops, I definitely meant to say "only rivaled by Season Three".
Korra breaks my heart because it probably would've been much better if the showrunners got more support from Nickelodeon from the get go.
Right? To have a show with that level of nuance and respect for its audience and characters get demoted to online-only before(ish) streaming was a thing was a travesty.
I like the one where Sokka gets sword training and makes his meteor sword. He’s my favorite character, so it’s nice to see him in his element.
Space Sword was legit
Sokka had so much growth in the series, love him for sure.
I like Tales of Ba Sing Se specifically because of Leaves from the Vine. I'm a sucker for a tear-jerker. I can still watch that and it hits me like the first few minutes of Up. The emotional depth in such a short sequence. It's a masterpiece.
Zuko Alone for me. An episode centering around the best character in the show? Sign me up!
It's also the exact point where the show truly transforms from being a shockingly good children's show to a genuinely fantastic fantasy series for everyone!
You just gave me a blast of nostalgia! When I had a 1st generation iPod Touch, I had just enough iTunes credit to purchase one episode of a TV show. Zuko Alone was the one I chose and I watched it too many times to count on my school bus ride home. Zuko centered episodes were my favorites due to his evolving character arc and this episode at the time was a "metamorphosis" of his character. In a way, he was quarreling with an ego death of who he thought he was, hence why he parted ways with Uncle Iroh earlier in the season. It isn't until this episode that he starts to emphasize with those he originally looked down upon, and then has to face realities of the pain wrought by those he desired to align with.
Zuko was the only thing that kept me in the show. I went back to watch it as an adult because it kept getting recommended to me. I quit after the first few episodes because I absolutely hated Ang's happy go lucky naivete.
I gave it one more episode and it was the first one that gave Zuko some real story time. Kept me going till the show picked up and got a little more serious.
Lot of great episodes already listed, I'm going to throw out "The Siege of the North"
For me it's not just about the episode itself, but the change in the show that also lead to S2 being my favorite season.
I didn't see the show until I was in my mid-20's, and while I did enjoy S1 it still felt like just a good episodic action-adventure kids cartoon - enjoyable to watch but something that doesn't go too hard. My partner was who was showing it to me, and she said to keep waiting until the S1 finale.
And yeah, it lived up to her hype. I definitely don't think it's the best episode in the show, but it was very much a turning point in the show from being more cutesy (even when serious) to just being serious and going hard on that seriousness. The show was binged from that point forward haha
This one is my all time favorite. It's the first, and really, only time we get to see the true full power of the Avatar.
He wiped out that entire fire nation fleet. The whole thing. They show him going for it, and then minutes later, they show an empty sea. All those people, wiped out in minutes. Very sobering.
I also really enjoy Koh. Push, and pull, life and death, good and evil. Yin, ... and Yang.
I think you might be slightly misremembering the scene, but not in a way that negates anything you've said. Aang didn't wipe out the fleet, per se, but he certainly displayed that he had the capability to do so if he had chosen to. In the end he slammed a few of the ships into each other, then he pushed the fleet away with a giant wave. None of the ships were sank.
That's what I thought for the longest time, but watching it again recently, it spans over the whole ocean in front of him at the end and there's nothing. No ships at all. He was only out there for a few minutes, where did they all go if he didn't sink them?
At the very end of the series he says that he's never taken a life, maybe he just recognizes that he wasn't in control - it was the ocean spirit, but I dunno. Where did those ships go.
Hmm, yeah I just went and rewatched for myself and you're right. It certainly does look like the big wave was about to sink the ships when the scene cuts back to Sokka talking to Princess Yue, and then when it cuts back to Aang again, he's looking out over the empty ocean as the ocean spirit. There are some icebergs in the background and we aren't specifically told how much time passes in that cut back to Sokka, so it could be possible still, but for whatever reason I have a false memory of them retreating.
The Beach was fantastic. It came so close to humanising Azula, and really gaslights the viewer into liking her before pulling the rug out from under their feet. I remember feeling sympathy for her the absolute shit-show of a childhood she had, and thinking the writers were planning a redemption arc for her. But then, that was never actually on the table.
Azula is an interesting character for sure - as observers we can see how her father triangulated her and Zuko against each other for his own benefit, and to both of their detriments. It's classic narcissism, one child is the golden child and the other is the scapegoat, and lateral violence results. She was conditioned to be the way that she is, but she has to be held responsible for her choices. Even with that conditioning, there has to be a part of her that knows she's doing bad things.
The writing of this show was seriously impressive. I majored in literary criticism and have to say, this show punches way above its class in terms of narrative, character development, character progression, and relatability to real-world issues and relationship dynamics.
Sozin is evil.
Azula is a sociopath.
She knows there's something wrong with her, but doesn't change her behavior because she literally doesn't see the point of being anything other than purely selfish. She can't connect to people because she doesn't have an ounce of empathy, and she ends up entirely alone because of it.
She's an absolutely tragic character.
City of Walls and Secrets had an incredible atmosphere in that something was up, but you didn't quite know what and it dragged you along for the rest of the episode so well.
Basically every episode with good Zuko/Iroh story, however some of my favorite would be:
Tales of Ba Sing Se, the tale of Iroh is just too good, Zuko's is also cool.
The storm, I like how it gives Zuko just a little bit of heart in the beginning.
However my favorite episode is probably, The Avatar and the Fire Lord.
The first time I watched that episode, the plot twist that Zuko's grandfathers were the Avatar and Sozen was really awesome.
Gonna have to go with The Blind Bandit. Toph is my favorite character and I love any scene where a supposedly helpless or underpowered character reveals themselves to be a total powerhouse.
Just noticed you mention Naruto as well, I haven't watched anywhere near all of it as I kinda lost interest at a certain point, but the Rock Lee vs Gaara(sp?) episode was one of my favorites for the same reason.
Every episode except The Great Divide. Such a disappointment!
I think this episode has a reputation it doesn't deserve. This episode showed us earthbending for the first time, the fight with the wall crawlers was fun, and I really like how aang lied about the past of the two village's to bring peace. If nickelodeon hadn't played the episode on repeat so often I don't think people would dislike it so much.
All the different animation styles for the different perspectives on the legend is also really impressive for a first-season show the network was targeting at children.
Call it a basic or simple reason, but while there are many good episodes, The Firebending Masters ultimately gets my vote. It's what I would call a "Mission: Complete" episode (obviously they have a few more things to take care of). It's the culmination of Zuko's character transformation, which hits the hardest, but it's also Aang finally learning the last ability to become The Avatar. It gives me the same feeling if when you finally unlock the final skill in a video game to be ready to face the Final Boss- identical scenario, really.
Oh, and because dragons. Dragons are just awesome.
Hard to single out one favorite, but perhaps The Library? Watching it sink into the sand was very emotional, but different than the personal loss much of the cast experience.
The Gliders was also interesting but at times frustrating.
how to choose?? other than the great suggestions the others have already put up, the Ember Island Players comes to mind quickly
Really hard to decide but I always really loved The Fortune Teller. From the funny moments, to Aang‘s iconic flirting („So… papaya?“) to one of Aang‘s most powerful bending moves outside of the avatar state, it had basically everything for me.
It's really difficult to ask that of a show that blends its arcs together so well; it's been a bit since I watched it and only looking through an episode list do I remember some of the distinct episodes, a lot of which were 2-parters.
I don't know if anyone shares the opinion, but I feel like an episode like The Ember Island Players would generally come across as lazy, snarky, or leaning too hard against the fourth wall - but for some reason it aired at the exact point that did without cheapening the finale or everything that lead up to it, and it addressed things like Jet without coming across to me as a cheap joke while feeling very, very in-universe. To me it's a pretty great example of how talented the writing team was, but again, years since I watched the show...
I finished it again this week for the first time since it originally aired. The Fortune Teller aged really really well. Rewatching it with concepts like 'antivax' and 'fake news' having surfaced in the interim made that episode that much more evocative.
I don't know which episode this is...we'll all of them were amazing but the one where Aang and Zuko started working together and they went to learn from those two dragons on the mountain.