Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“I am the greatest earth-bending teacher in the world!”
After mastering water-bending under the kind Katara, Aang turns to earth-bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, undertaking rigorous training under a new young master, the unfiltered Toph, a fan favorite from the original animated series by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
Showrunners Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani deliver a bigger adventure, kicking off Season 2 with an epic sequence recapping all four classical elements of the story. Gordon Cormier has grown taller since viewers last saw him as Avatar Aang, but honestly, it’s a little more believable to see a slightly older version taking on the burden of saving the whole world.
Also Read: Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 Review – Gordon Cormier Takes Off
This time, Aang, along with Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley), heads to Ba Sing Se, the fortified capital of the Earth Kingdom, to help rehabilitate a group of refugees and seek an audience with the king to warn him about Fire Lord Ozai’s (Daniel Dae Kim) plans to attack them. A parallel subplot follows banished Prince Zuko’s (Dallas Liu) journey with his uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), while his sister Azula (Elizabeth Yu) is sent on a new mission to “retrieve” him. But Azula, being Azula, also continues to strategize ways to infiltrate and bring the Earth Kingdom to its knees.
The seemingly impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se serves as the primary setting for The Last Airbender Season 2. On the surface, it appears to be a thriving metropolis, but beneath its towering walls lies an authoritarian regime, where spies lurk around every corner and stark class divisions keep the rich and the poor apart. To make matters worse, almost everyone is cut off from the outside world, with censorship and misinformation becoming the order of the day. So, Aang and team find it extremely hard to meet the king and strategize against the Fire kingdom.
Given the new city setting, The Last Airbender Season 2, of course, introduces a host of new characters, but Miyako as Toph Beifong is easily the most entertaining addition. A short, fiercely strong young Earthbender who can make grown men cry, Toph was born blind and raised by wealthy, overprotective parents. While Toph’s mom hilariously refers to her as ‘little flower’ or ‘fragile flower’, Toph is a legend in her own right, with absolutely no filter when it comes to speaking her mind, and easily the meanest master Aang has had to deal with so far.
The audience that will enjoy Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 best is the one that already connected with the principal cast in Season 1. Much of whether this live-action adaptation lands depends on how much you warm to Gordon Cormier’s take on Avatar Aang. I continue to find him charming as the friendly, kind-hearted, naïve, and spirited young hero, even if Aang can sometimes be unreasonably emotional or even self-centered. Given that he’s still a child carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, those moments might feel frustrating, but not out of place.
Kiawentiio’s Katara is the comfort action figure of Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2. She water-bends with the ease of a comic-book superhero while serving as the emotional anchor of the core group. The character also undergoes some individual growth, sneaking out at night on secret solo missions to help the needy in Ba Sing Se. And while I was quite indifferent to Ian Ousley’s performance as her older brother Sokka in the first season, he really grew on me in The Last Airbender Season 2, especially since he remains one of the few sources of comic relief in the series.
Elizabeth Yu is fantastic as the scheming, ruthless Azula, causing chaos alongside her loyal sidekicks Ty Lee (Momona Tamada) and Mai (Thalia Tran), delivering a confident, casually sinister portrayal of the antagonist. But it’s Dallas Liu as the morally grey Prince Zuko who delivers the standout performance in The Last Airbender Season 2. He remains arrogant, selfish, and consumed by self-loathing, yet with his uncle Iroh always there to rein him in, Zuko embarks on a journey to forge his own path. Even then, the shadow of his tyrannical father looms large, leaving him constantly torn between good and evil.
Flashbacks to Zuko and Azula’s childhood are woven throughout The Last Airbender Season 2, providing the emotional backbone for their present-day interactions and lending greater weight to their rivalry, even though their primary purpose is to highlight Zuko’s internal struggle and existential crisis. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Iroh remains my favorite character in the show: a remorseful former war general who tries his best to guide Zuko while dealing with his own guilt and baggage over the war crimes he committed.
Now, fire, air, water, and earth might be the principal elements of this fantasy-action tale, but the show’s real strengths lie in its action choreography and visual effects. The VFX is solid for the most part, although there are plenty of moments where the green screen becomes painfully obvious, with some effects looking clunky and unfinished. Aang’s beloved flying bison, Appa, is very adorable, but also looks conspicuously fake.
As for the action, Azula’s fire-bending and Toph’s earth-bending deliver The Last Airbender Season 2’s biggest fist-pumping moments, you know, the kind that would’ve earned whistles and cheers from a packed movie theater. Aang and Katara also share a fantastic, gloriously over-the-top battle against a sea monster, showcasing just how seamlessly the two fight as a team. The rest of the fight sequences, while competent, aren’t nearly as memorable as they could’ve been.
A few convenient plot twists and some clunky CGI aside, Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is simply more binge-worthy than Season 1. It’s an earnest fantasy adventure about friendship, found family, redemption, and trying to build peace in a world that’s constantly at war. Although the final scene? It’s a criminal cliffhanger that will leave fans counting days to season 3!
Stream Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 on Netflix.
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