With an upcoming Netflix live-action series that will serve as a retelling of the insanely popular Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, longtime fans have found themselves rewatching some of their favorite episodes of Avatar and even The Legend of Korra in preparation.
We’ve been doing our fair share of rewatching as well, but the more episodes we’ve gotten through, the more we’ve been starting to realize that some things just don’t make much sense, no matter how many times we press the rewind button, but maybe it’s just us.
A Colony Of Flying Bison Remained Hidden For Over 100 Years
Throughout Avatar: The Last Airbender, we were led to believe that Appa was the last flying bison. It wasn’t until The Legend of Korra that we saw more flying bison. Sometime after the Hundred Year War, Aang found a colony of Flying Bison on an island in Earth Kingdom. While we’re glad that these magnificent creatures hadn’t all been killed off by the Fire Nation, we can’t believe these airborne giants were able to remain hidden for so long.
With the Fire Nation spread heavily throughout the Earth Kingdom and their ships sailing all over its seas, we would’ve thought they’d discovered every last flying bison by the time Aang emerged from his iceberg. It’s pretty hard to miss a whole bison soaring through the clouds, but we just might be the paranoid ones in this circumstance.
Lion Turtles Were Hunted To Extinction
As we saw in The Legend of Korra, lion turtles once populated the world, giving humans safe homes away from the Spirit Wilds, as well as the gift of bending. During the events of The Last Airbender, the lion turtles were long-gone, hunted to extinction eons ago. Not only do we not know who exactly is responsible for such a genocide, but we’re also wondering why they wanted to kill these creatures in the first place, as well as how they managed to do it.
At the time the lion turtles were hunted to extinction, there would’ve been less technology than there was in Avatar, meaning that there were no guns and advanced warships to aid the hunters. And what exactly did the hunters do with their island-sized carcasses? The writers of the live-action better come up with an answer to this question soon if they want us to stop asking it.
Only Azula Could Generate Blue Flames
We’ve seen many talented fire benders, but Princess Azula comes to our minds first, mostly for the fact that she was able to generate blue flames when every other fire bender could only generate a standard orange flame. Normally, blue flames indicate a fire higher in oxygen content. Does this mean that Azula’s breathing technique was far more superior to everyone else’s?
If these flames are supposedly stronger, how come her father never utilized them himself? Sure, we know this stylistic effect gave her technique a sinister quality absent in fire benders like Iroh and Zuko, but we find it odd that Azula was the only one who could generate a navy-colored supernova.
All Of The Southern Water Tribe Warriors Left Sokka Behind
When we were first introduced to the Southern Water Tribe, we were shocked to see that Sokka was the tribe’s only warrior. All of the other able-bodied men departed long ago to fight on the front lines of the Hundred Year War, but this doesn’t make much sense on their part.
With the knowledge of the Fire Nation invasion years ago that resulted in their water benders being killed, why would the Southern Water Tribe leave themselves vulnerable to another attack? They didn’t really think that Sokka could handle a threat all by himself, did they?
An Earth Kingdom Playwright Knew So Much About Aang And His Friends
During the final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Team Avatar saw a play in the Fire Nation that satirized their journey thus far. It was stated that the playwright’s sources included nomads, pirates, prisoners of war, and a cabbage merchant, but we’re still not sure how he knew so much about Team Avatar even if he managed to talk to every single they’d interacted with over the course of their journey.
At one point, Aang arrives late to his seat, and Sokka explains what he missed, much of it being events that just occurred, like Sokka acquiring his “space sword”, Katara becoming the “Painted Lady”, and Combustion Man’s death. We’re not only wondering how this Earth Kingdom playwright would’ve been able to infiltrate the Fire Nation himself to get this info, but all of these events would’ve had to been told to the playwright by a member of Team Avatar.
Everyone Speaks The Same Language
The world of Avatar is huge, filled with vastly different cultures and nations with their own histories. Still, not once during their journey was communication a major issue.
Unless the Avatar world is a lot smaller than we think, it doesn’t make much sense that the same language is spoken throughout all four nations.
Katara Was Able To Revive Aang?
The end of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Book 2 got really dark, really fast. During his fight against Azula, Aang was killed by a lightning strike from Azula right when he attempted to enter the Avatar State. Luckily for us, Katara had some of the magical water from the Northern Water Tribe’s Spirit Oasis on hand, using it to restore Aang’s spirit, although we were under the impression that killing Aang while he was in the Avatar State would lead to the Avatar being no more.
If you think about it, Katara didn’t instantly use this water on Aang right after he was shot down. She had to flee the underground cavern, and had to reunite with the others first. As long as that must’ve taken in a world without cell phones, Aang should’ve been dead and gone by that point.
Zaheer Instantly Knows How To Airbend
Zaheer, the leader of the Red Lotus, suddenly gained the ability to air bend after Korra decided to leave the spirit portals open. He was fascinated with Air Nomad culture, evident by his obsession with the Air Nomad poet Guru Laghima, but even so, we’re not too entirely sure why Zaheer was such a skilled Airbender after just getting his abilities.
He’d never been formally trained, and we’ve seen firsthand how many hours of practice are required to perform the most basic of air bending maneuvers, yet Zaheer learned how to fly and suffocate people on his own! Last time we checked, being a karate enthusiast doesn’t automatically make you a blackbelt.
Korra Knew How To Bend The Other Elements
For Aang and all of the other Avatars that came before him, mastering all four elements was a rather daunting task that often took months of discipline and travel. Korra, however, was able to bend water, fire, and earth as a child! Waterbending, sure, since she was born originally as a water bender in the Southern Water Tribe, but fire and earth?
That felt a bit too convenient. We get it; Korra’s definitely supposed to be portrayed as a prodigy among Avatars, and she did have a limit in that air bending came difficult to her, but that still doesn’t make it okay she had a solid grasp on the other elements before anyone taught her a thing.
How Did Aang Survive Frozen For 100 Years?
While there are strides being made in preserving organs for future use through freezing them, as it stands now, Aang wouldn’t have been able to survive frozen for half a century in reality. Ice would’ve formed in his blood vessels, and the eventual bursts of these vessels would’ve rendered them useless, killing him in the process, not to mention the fact that hypothermia would’ve already set in.
It’s a good thing Avatar: The Last Airbender didn’t have to make sense all the time though. It just had to be good, and trust us when we say that it definitely was.
