The Ending Of Avatar: The Last Airbender Explained

The premise of Avatar's world is a simple one: There are four nations, and depending on where a person is born, they may have the ability to "bend" one of the elements. Those of the Water Tribe control the waves, citizens of the Earth Kingdom can toss around rocks like they're papier-mâché, Fire Nation hotmen and hotwomen burn up the competition, and the monks and nuns of the Air Nomads blow away their worldly concerns.

Then there's the Avatar: Master of all four elements, bridge between the physical plane and the Spirit World. The Avatar is a singular entity, reincarnated into a person from one of the four nations (in a predetermined order) every time the previous version dies. Whatever role each new Avatar ends up playing, they're always the center of attention in the world, as important to international affairs as any high-ranking politician or monarch.

The most powerful ability the Avatar has at their disposal, however, is the Avatar State. Under its influence, the current Avatar is able to draw upon the knowledge, experience, and power of all their past lives — a devastatingly powerful tool whether controlled or let loose. The one drawback is that if an Avtar is killed in the Avatar State, the Avatar cycle will come to an abrupt end. It's a great deal of power, but at a price.

As luck would have it, Southern Water Tribe siblings Sokka and Katara discover Aang in the ice while out fishing one day. By all appearances, he's just a kid who wants to have fun, but it isn't long before Prince Zuko crashes the party (for the first of many times) and Aang's true identity comes to light. Not long after that, the whole world knows of his return.

The thing is, after connecting to and speaking with the spirit of Roku, the Avatar preceding him, Aang learns that he's on something of a time limit. He must defeat the current Fire Lord, Ozai, before Sozin's Comet returns the following summer and allows the Fire Nation to wreak unstoppable havoc once again. Committing genocide once is enough, but with the ability to potentially repeat it ...

From that point forward, Aang has no choice but to face his destiny as the Avatar and put an end to the fiery tyranny, even if it is a hundred years too late. Having already mastered airbending, he sets out — with Sokka and Katara's help — in search of waterbending, earthbending, and firebending teachers to prepare himself for the inevitable showdown with Ozai.

Amidst countless adventures that introduce him, Sokka, and Katara to new places and companions — most notably Momo (a winged lemur), Toph (who teaches Aang earthbending), and Suki (a great warrior and Sokka's one true love) – Aang slowly but surely comes into his own, understanding not only how to manipulate elements other than air, but what it truly means to be the Avatar. None of it's easy, but having run away in the past doesn't mean Aang isn't one tough kid in his own way.

Team Avatar falls back to the Western Air Temple, where deciding on a next course of action becomes imperative. The eclipse has passed, so as Sokka says to Aang, "The new plan is the old plan! You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes." That's easier said than done, especially since Aang is still without a firebending teacher ... until Zuko arrives, that is. 

As they've fought the firebender more times than they can count, it's only natural that everyone's knee-jerk reaction is to get defensive. Suffice to say, the conversation doesn't go well, and Zuko accidentally burns Toph's feet when she comes to talk to him alone later that night. It really couldn't get any worse — that is, until Combustion Man, an assassin who's been after Aang for some time, throws things into disarray.

Although it's Sokka who ultimately bests the daunting killer, Zuko alerts everyone to his presence, essentially saving them from an early grave. Once the dust settles, the firebender comes down to plead Team Avatar's graces one last time. Aang believes Zuko to be genuine, and asks if his friends think the same. One by one, they accept Zuko as Aang's firebending teacher — even the not-so-subtly reluctant Katara. Regardless, Aang is now one step closer to becoming a fully-realized Avatar.

The final showdown takes place on three fronts: (1) Katara and Zuko versus Azula; (2) Sokka, Toph, and Suki figuring out how to immobilize the Fire Army's airships; and of course, (3) Aang taking down Fire Lord Ozai (The Order of the White Lotus, led by Iroh, has the more standard troop-to-troop warfare covered). Only by using all the skills, knowledge, and wisdom they've acquired over the course of Avatar's three seasons — not to mention keeping their mistakes from the eclipse invasion in mind — do any of them stand a chance.

Azula is in a frail state of mind before Katara and Zuko even arrive, having been crowned the new Fire Lord after Ozai declared himself the Phoenix King, and having seen visions of her long-disappeared mother. As if Azula isn't dangerous enough already, a she proves a horrifying opponent, blasting her blue flames with reckless abandon and shooting lightning like she's a thundercloud. The bending battle ends in the heroes' favor, but not without a new scar with which for Zuko to live.

Sokka, Toph, and Suki have a rough time of it as well — anyone would, coming up against a fleet of humongous airships — but between Sokka's tactical thinking, Toph's metalbending prowess, and Suki's unmatched hand-to-hand combat, they give Aang one less thing to worry about by taking control of and all but destroying the flying war machines.

All that's left is for the Avatar to pull out a victory against the Sozin's Comet-powered Ozai.

Energybending could understandably be viewed as deus ex machina — a power Aang conveniently receives that prevents him from having to make an actual decision. It's not, however, quite that simple or contrived. Instead, it's a deliberate and considerate move on the writers' part.

Throughout Avatar, Aang's deep connection with nature is made abundantly clear. There's his stance as a vegetarian. There are his relationships with both Appa and Momo, from whom he's inseparable. There's his part in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" episode, in which he earthbends a wide-open space in which for formerly caged or cramped animals to live. The list goes on, and it's completely opposed to the Fire Nation's constant disregard of the natural world — on full display when Sozin's Comet arrives and Ozai begins burning down a forest.

Even before Aang realizes the lion turtle is a living creature, such a picturesque island is the perfect place for him to root himself in nature once again as he seeks a way to resolve things peacefully. He doesn't just breathe the fresh air and hope an answer comes to him, either — as aforementioned, he reaches back to previous Avatars, and as they tell him, one by one, that he has no choice but to kill, he continues to argue, to strive to be better.

That's how he earns energybending: By refusing to give up on his ideals even when all voices speak to the contrary. What would have been the point if, after three seasons of pacifism, Aang struck down Ozai? His character arc would've meant nothing. It was more than a gift from the lion turtle, more than destiny. It was the end of a path Aang forged himself, and from which he never deviated.

Indeed, no character closes out as they began. Katara goes from a self-taught waterbender emotionally charged by the death of her mother to a waterbending master who embraces forgiveness. Sokka goes from a half-decent goofball warrior to a well-trained and capable leader (who's still occasionally a goofball). Toph goes from an immensely powerful earthbender who can't see outside of herself to someone who understands not only the earth beneath her feet, but the people around her.

Change, Avatar seems to say, is inevitable. Those who resist it or those who try to enforce it through violence never last long in the grand scheme of things. All the main characters are still young; they will continue to change beyond the confines of the show (and the comics, which continue their stories for a few more years).

And that's a beautiful thing.