Spoilers for the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender are ahead! If you haven’t streamed the series, you can watch it right now with a Netflix subscription.
Now that Avatar: The Last Airbender has been renewed for Season 2, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Season 1 finale and its implications. From Aang and co. helping the Northern Water Tribe as well as the ocean and moon spirits after the Fire Nation attacked to the final moments that show Azula taking Omashu, it’s clear that these major moments will impact the series moving forward. So, with that in mind, I couldn’t help but think back on the behind-the-scenes stories showrunner Albert Kim told CinemaBlend about how they created the finale’s big monster and why they decided to end the show with the scene they did.
Along with chatting to Kim about how they condensed the 20-episode animated season into eight live-action episodes, he broke down the finale and those final sequences in detail. So, let’s talk about Aang, the Ocean Spirit and the water monster they turned into as well as that shocking final scene that helps set up Season 2.
Albert Kim Opens Up About How They Created the Ocean Spirit At The End Of Avatar: The Last Airbender
While there were major changes made in Avatar: The Last Airbender from the OG show, one major plot point that stayed the same was Aang and the Ocean Spirit coming together to defeat the Fire Nation when it attacked the Northern Water Tribe. Speaking about the inclusion of this moment, Albert Kim told me that it was so vital for them to create it that they made sure to budget specifically for it, explaining:
I always knew we had to have… [the] ocean spirit in the finale, to the point where we conserved some of our VFX budget so that we could spend it in the finale, which is why we can't do a whole lot within some of the other sequences.
He went on to say that the animated series served as a great guide for them, and they wanted to make a creature that was “worthy of fear from the Fire Nation and awe from the Water Tribe.” Noting how they designed the character to meet those two points, Kim said:
In the cartoon, you can just sort of draw a solid shape with some black and blue shading to get that across. But in live action, it's going to feel fluid, it's going to feel like water, you got to have those elements. We also pulled in Avatar State lighting, because it's Aang at the heart of it, we say that it's Aang’s Avatar State merged with the rage of the ocean spirit. So you needed to see elements of all of that in there.
Kim continued saying that it was important for this monster to “flow” like water, but also be terrifying. Noting what Iroh told Zuko about the monster, the showrunner explained to me:
There's a line that Iroh has when Zuko asked ‘What is that?’ and he goes ‘That, that is wrath.’ You know, we wanted to feel that viscerally.
This monster that combines Aang in the Avatar State and the Ocean Spirit was imperative for the story, and I’m so happy they conserved their budget and put so much effort into making this creature they called “Whale-Zilla." It paid off greatly.
And like Whale-Zilla, Kim and his team also put a lot of thought into the final moments of this episode after the battle at the Northern Water Tribe ends.
Albert Kim Breaks Down The Final Scene In Omashu
Immediately following the massive battle between the Water Tribe and the Fire Nation that involves the water monster, it’s revealed that this battle was a diversion. Ozai and Azula – who were introduced early – used that to distract the Avatar so they could take the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu and its king, Bumi. So, in the final scene, we learn about this plot, and Kim said that the choice was made because they have the “benefit of hindsight” when it comes to knowing how the series ultimately needs to end:
Having the benefit of hindsight knowing where the story was going and knowing that we could use some of those elements in the first season, the conquest of Omashu, at the end of the first season seemed to us like a great bookend to the season.
Kim went on to say that along with this takeover being a nice setup for Season 2, it’s also a full circle moment. At the beginning of the show, we see Fire Lord Sozin attack the Southern Air Temple and then we see the comet. The same thing happens at the end of the season with his descendant Ozai, as Kim explained:
Plus, if you really pay attention, Fire Lord Sozin’s entire strategy has to do with misdirection in the beginning of the season. And at the very end, you see Fire Lord Ozai do the exact same thing and say, ‘Here's the misdirection. We weren't really going after the Northern Water Tribe, we were going after Omashu.’ So that, again, was one of those things when you laid out all of the story and you can see those patterns emerge, [it] felt like a really nice way to end the season, as well as create, you know, a cliffhanger that will hopefully pull you into subsequent seasons.
Overall, having Bumi in captivity as Azula takes Omashu and the introduction of Sozin’s Comet helped Kim and his team lay the groundwork for Season 2.
This finale truly was a faithful adaptation of the animated series – monsters and all – that set up Season 2 fantastically! After I finished binge-watching Season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I immediately was ready for the next installment, because I had to know what the implications were of the giant battle at the Water Tribe and the reveal that the Fire Nation had taken over Omashu at the same time.
Luckily, we will get to see more amazing monsters and shocking plot twists when Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres. However, we’ll have to wait a while for it seeing as Season 1 only recently premiered on the 2024 TV schedule. While we wait, you better believe I’ll be keeping Kim’s comments about the finale in mind as I rewatch the live-action series as well as its animated predecessor on Netflix.
