Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Review: A Darker, Earthier Adventure

Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

3.5

Sophomore seasons have a heavy load to shoulder. Maintaining the character dynamics of the premiere season while further challenging them can put off audiences looking for a gentler continuation.

With Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, there is the added challenge of meeting the expectations of the legions of fans of the original animated Nickelodeon series.

So, how exactly does a live-action series capture the magic of an animated narrative, deeply loved by a generation of nostalgic viewers? It’s a perilous path.

Season 2 finds Team Avatar on the hunt for an Earthbender to train Aang. This leads them to the fortress city of Ba Sing Se and a whole new sort of villainy: bureaucratic propaganda.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2

Hard fact: Truists are going to have a hard time with this season.

In adapting the 20 original half-hour format episodes to seven hour-long episodes, choices were made to change crucial elements of the plot, characters, and conflict.

And even those without a background in the animated series might not enjoy how dark they get and how deep they dig.

Furthermore, there’s the whole visual of Season 1’s 12-year-old Aang, played by similarly-aged Gordon Cormier, suddenly sprouting to nearly six feet tall by Season 2, filmed when he was 15.

Things Get Messy

From the start of Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, the narrative has a fractured feel.

The various groups — Team Avatar, Azula’s trio, and Zuko and Iroh — begin geographically divided.

Furthermore, everyone is at different stages of recovery after the climactic battle of Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 finale.

Aang has used the time to hone his waterbending skills under Katara’s tutelage. When the Gaang heads to Omashu, they come in handy when they have to rescue a group of Earth Kingdom refugees from Fire Nation soldiers.

Suki also joins in the fight, much to Sokka’s bashful joy. Yup, that’s right. We’ve got emotions in the mix. And that’s never good for battle strategy.

Pairing Up

It’s not just Sokka, though he’s probably the most fun to watch when he’s awkward. The others get relationship vibes thrown at them from both expected and unexpected quarters.

Katara and Aang clearly grew closer while he was learning waterbending from her. But that friendship makes romantic options feel extra weird.

Elsewhere, Zuko and Iroh are in hiding after they helped Aang et al defeat the Fire Nation’s navy.

Blending in isn’t exactly in Zuko’s wheelhouse. Neither is menial labor. Nor the special bending technique Iroh tries to teach him, which requires inner peace and mindfulness.

Apparently, Zuko’s brooding bad boy vibe is considered attractive in the Earth Kingdom. Until his Fire Nation nature emerges, there is some very sweet attention paid, which throws him for an emotional loop.

Meanwhile, Azula has no time for lingering looks as she undertakes new orders from her father, Fire Lord Ozai. But there are lingering looks thrown her way.

There’s no accounting for taste. Or masochism, I guess.

The Blind Bandit

When Omashu and Bumi don’t work out the way they planned, the Gaang head for Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, a reputedly “impenetrable city.”

Along the way, and keeping in mind some advice Bumi imparted on Aang, they witness a young blind Earthbending girl completely annihilate her opponents in Earth Rumble, an Earthbending competition with a total pro wrestling feel.

Hel-lo, Toph.

I love that benders embody the element they work with. Aang is light-hearted and easygoing, airy by nature and by calling. Katara, as a waterbender, goes with the flow.

Toph is having none of that.

She’s a blunt and powerful instrument, more the boulder than the Indiana Jones in any scenario.

Having hidden her abilities from her parents her whole life, she’s deeply annoyed that her cover has been blown and doesn’t bother hiding it.

She is, quite simply, the greatest Earthbender in the world. And, maybe surprising even her, not a terrible teacher.

Cracks in the Foundation

The trouble really begins when everyone starts harboring secrets in Ba Sing Se, which is very much a case of “When in Rome” mentality, however subconscious.

Unbeknownst to them, Zuko and Iroh have already set up there, working in a tea shop.

And what Zuko and Iroh don’t know is that Azula’s tracked them to Ba Sing Se, getting past the earthbender-controlled gates using her own brand of deception.

“There is No War in Ba Sing Se”

Ba Sing Se is a fascinating microcosm of propaganda-fueled delusion.

It’s also a beautifully rendered set. For a season that launches with some truly spectacular special effects, the production details in Ba Sing Se steal the spotlight.

And amidst all the fantastic, immersive features, the brainwashed catchphrases mouthed by the government’s representatives are insidiously disquieting.

In a nutshell, Ba Sing Se’s governing powers decided it would be bad for the economy and cultural growth for the people to be worried about something as disturbing as a war.

Thus, despite the Hundred Year War waged throughout the Four Nations, no one speaks of it inside the walls of the city. Those who persist in talking about it are euphemistically “sent to Lake Laogai.”

It says something about the state of the world today that Ba Sing Se’s deep-rooted political corruption doesn’t seem all that far-fetched, when it’s meant to be hyperbolic.

Broken Bonds

Our heroes’ biggest obstacle is remaining united.

Perhaps the team’s formation came too easily, too organically, and when they were too young to understand that you have to put in the work for things to stay productive.

As Aang, Katara, and Sokka take different paths with different priorities, the mission falters.

And that leaves the door open for Azula and her own special level of psychopathy, which is a whole other conversation.

This season shades in the corners of her relationship with Zuko, with a series of flashbacks to their last days with their mother, Ursa.

Saving the World Isn’t Easy

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 takes us through a rollercoaster of emotion, action, and conflict.

The effects are epic, providing the fantastical backdrop to very understandable challenges within the Gaang as well as between them and a nearly overwhelming catalog of antagonists.

Fascinatingly, Fire Lord Ozai is pretty much the least of their concerns this time around.

However, it’s hard to feel good about a season that exposes every character’s vulnerability without a strategy to shore it up. As Earthbending teaches Aang, we have to simply stand our ground.

With Aang needing to master Firebending next, things can only heat up. Obviously.

And since Seasons 2 and 3 were ordered and filmed together, the producers had carte blanche to leave us on whatever tenterhooks they like. You’ve been warned.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 drops all seven episodes on Netflix on June 25. Prepare yourself accordingly.

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