This is it, the final part of Netflix: Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it’ll become very apparent that the showrunners are attempting to speed-run through events to catch up with where Book One of Avatar: The Last Air Bender is supposed to end.
It begins with an assassination attempt on Zuko by Zhao, who has been the best and most competent villain so far. The actor Ken Leung is hamming it up in every season, and it’s nice to have a bad guy who is just plain bad. With Zhao being given command of the fleet he’s been ordered to attack the Northern Water Tribe and already hints he has a plan.
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Aang and the others arrive to the excitement of the North, apparently having heard of all of his exploits so far. It’s the first time one might begin to wonder exactly how much time has passed between episode one and eight. For the sake of pacing it makes sense to not have the gang go through lengthy introductions and convince the people Aang is indeed the Avatar, but given the Northern Water Tribe is so isolated from the rest of the world, it’s hard to imagine they knew who the Avatar was or that he’d be coming to help them.
Another Azula scene is thrown in, at this point, these should just be skipped. They do nothing to advance the plot, and given that the episode is already strapped for time, this is just another bad decision by the showrunners.
Not-Sokka meets Yue, who is supposed to be his first real love in the series, but that role is stolen by Suki early on. It’d make sense that, given the limited run time, their romance would have to be cut, but instead, it’s developed over the course of maybe ten minutes.
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An added scene is included with Avatar Kuruk, and although his inclusion is neat, it’s wholly irrelevant. Kuruk was the Avatar who lost his loved one to Koh, and if he was going to pop up anywhere, it should have been when Aang needed advice on dealing with him. Instead, that was shoved onto Roku for some reason in the last episode.
In truth, Kuruk’s scene should have been removed, and more time should have been given to develop the relationship between not-Sokka and Yue. Or given to Aang to learn the basics behind water bending. As interesting as Kuruk is, the entire scene with him is basically used to explain why Aang can’t pull out an ex-machina and let a past life take control of him and beat the Fire Nation.
Yue and not-Sokka are immediately head over heels for each other, and it feels very unnatural. In the cartoon, there were a few episodes to build up their relationship, but here, it’s all condensed down into roughly twenty minutes from when they meet to when they’re making out.
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Aang is asked to help spearhead an attack against the invading Fire Nation armada but quickly admits he hasn’t learned any of the other elements. Paku, the water-bending master of the North, says what we’ve been thinking for the past few episodes. Aang should have been spending his time practicing water bending. Paku is based.
Then Katara comes over, refusing to just learn to heal, and Paku says women cannot fight because they are weaker than men. Absolutely based Paku!
Aang doesn’t want Katara to fight either and won’t help her with Paku. Meanwhile not-Sokka steps in and tells Katara that she should fight Paku and prove she’s a capable water bender. But the showrunners decided to keep the conflict going after the fight ends, and it’s going to lead to a very silly resolution in the next episode.
And we skip another useless Azula scene. She’s really not important to the story.
From there Aang realizes Katara is strong and decides to work with his friends now. And all seems happy until the Fire Nation attacks!
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The final rating for the seventh episode is 4/10
The Zhao scenes are really entertaining, but there’s so much catch-up being done by the showrunners to get ready for the final episode we don’t get to see much of the relationships between the characters grow naturally.
Yue and not-Sokka’s relationship is rushed. Katara’s rebelling against Paku is rushed. We waste time with worthless Azula scenes, and as cool as Avatar Kuruk could have been, his scene should have been clipped to spend more time fleshing things out.
It’s not the worst in the series, but that’s not saying much!
The final stage is set for the final episode, but let’s hope they don’t ruin what should be a simple 1 for 1 adaptation.
What do you think of Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender? Leave a comment and let us know.
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