Avatar: The Last Airbender – 7 Mistakes The Netflix Remake MUST Avoid

While Book One hit the mark in many ways, it wasn’t without its faults. As the show was still finding its footing, it hit a few rough patches with some truly questionable episodes. These poorly-received outings are best left in the past.

The most infamous episode in the entire Avatar series can be found in season one. “The Great Divide” created an ironically-similar chasm between viewers of the original series. This episode has been criticized for appearing as mere filler for the overall story, and fundamentally misunderstanding its central character, as Aang – the righteous, do-gooder Air Nomad – resolves the main conflict through a bold-faced lie.

“Bato of the Water Tribe” also seems to contradict his character, by presenting him as a petulant, selfish child, as opposed to a naive and bright-eyed one. Aang wasn’t the only character to suffer from this improper characterization, as fans were also forced to witness a pervy Uncle Iroh.

There’s a lesson to be learned from these few bad episodes: consistent characterization. Goodness knows Shyamalan failed in that regard, switching around Katara and Sokka’s personalities within minutes of his film’s first act. So while there’s little threat of the creators repeating these errors, they’d best not remind of us them.