10 Most Emotional Avatar The Last Airbender Moments

Nothing makes someone cry better than Avatar The Last Airbender.

By Michael John-Day /

For a show which primarily focuses on the idea of balance, Avatar: The Last Airbender couldn't have done a better job working between comedy and drama.

Advertisement

The three-season run of The Last Airbender is an emotional rollercoaster, featuring highs of laughter and absolute lows of heartbreak. This is what makes its legacy so potent, even well after watching its ending.

The series was the perfect combination of mature themes and immature storytelling. There are enough moments littered throughout the show, some subtle and some grand that bring tears to audience members eyes - likely enough to fill up an entire twenty positions, so to narrow them down to ten is a challenging task. Many scenes which deserve attention won't appear - and that doesn't mean that they weren't also incredible, it's just a testament to how masterfully this show handled its emotional complexity.

Ranging from relationships between the characters, tragic occurrences or small quirks that add additional pathos to dialogue, there are plenty of methods that the showrunners employed to manipulate the audiences feelings.

Major spoiler warning for this entire article, as it will be discussing plot points and scenes that happen throughout the show's run.

10. Sokka Admits he Doesn't Remember his Mother

The episode The Chase in Season 2 establishes a clear contrast between Toph and Katara. The two operate on entirely different levels, so it makes sense for them to clash. This relationship is further examined in Season 3's The Runaway. After almost an entire episode of dispute between the two, there is a blowup and Toph storms off.

Advertisement

This is where the emotional moment appears, as Sokka attempts to comfort Toph. He discusses and addresses Katara's mothering, and claims that he can't even remember his mother, and he has always seen Katara as the person who cares for him.

This dialogue is heart-wrenching, as although it was always clear that Katara was the matriarch of the group, we come to realise that it's a manifestation of the impact that losing her mother had on her. She cares so much for others that she takes on the strenuous task of caring for everyone, because she knows how important it is that they have someone like that in their lives.

This sequence is only made better when we discover that Katara heard the entire conversation. It's used to strengthen the bond between Sokka and herself, and put an end to the petty squabbles with Toph.

Advertisement