Mini Review #117: Avatar the Last Airbender 1x7/1x8 "The North" and "Legends" (Patreon)

So I finished season 1 (hopefully) of Avatar the Last Airbender and what did I think?? Overall, a fairly solid show with some great moments as well as some rushed or uneven moments. Think I would give it a 7-7.5/10 overall BUT these last two episodes were so good!! They felt very similar to the cartoon in many ways which was nice while also have small enough differences to keep me engaged.

In The North, I loved that they kept Paku's and the Northern Water Tribe's sexism towards women fighting. It is such a great arc for Katara to go through in the original show and I am glad she got to go through it again here. Seeing her fight with Paku was legendary and the effects were spectacular. Love how the slid around on the ice shooting ice speaks. It was very dynamic and fluid (like water haha). Aang talking to Kuruk was also really cool to see and I am glad they kept his backstory while expanding it at the same time. It makes sense to me why he would want Aang to fight alone as he lost the love of his life in the war against the dark spirits he was waging. Yue and Sokka also were great in this episode and their relationship was a million times stronger than in the movie. While I thought her hair was a little strange, Yue was very solid and even some of the changes like her being able to enter the spirit world while she is asleep didn't bother me. I finally actually like Zhao this episode and Azula was so epic! She LIGHTNING BENDED AND IT WAS AWESOME!

Legends was my favourite episode of the show for its sheer fun and scale alone. It was the final battle with the fire nation taking on the Northern Water Tribe and I was expecting great things. Visually, this episode is masterful. The fireballs lighting up the night sky, the waterbending blocking and exploding fireballs mid air like fireworks, the black and white only being lit up by the red glow of fire, and of course the giant Koi-zilla moment. It all looked so spectacular and had me cheering and whooping the entire way through. Zuko vs Katara, Zuko vs Zhao, Iroh's little fight, they were all entertaining and made me want to see more bending ASAP. My only real complaint with this episode, and spoilers if you haven't seen anything Avatar, is Zhao's death. His death in the cartoon is his own fault as he decides to not be saved my Iroh. In this show, he gets fireblasted by Iroh who in his defence is protecting Zuko, but still a strange change for me. I also loved the twist at the end where Ozai was using the North as a distraction from his true conquest in Omashu. And we got some discussion of Sozin's comet so that is exciting. Really hoping for a season two because the highs of this show were really good. If the writers can tighten up the writing and learn from their mistakes in season 1, then I believe we could have a pretty good show on our hands! I also think season 2/3 are much more suited for this style of tv and that may help as well!