Avatar: The Last Airbender🍰 has likely been one of the best animated shows that the early 2000s had to offer. It had everything: great characters, a fantastic story, and gorgeous music and animation. You could see how much the characters had grown and progressed throughout the story, and by the end, you felt like you’d been on an incredible journey as well.
What likely made Avatar stand 𝔍out was that it appealed to both kids and adults. It had plenty of light-hearted laughabꦗle moments, but when it was time to be serious, this show had no qualms about getting pretty deep into some tough topics and dark scenarios. That’s probably one thing that took people by surprise; just how serious this show could get and how it could get you to care so much about this world.
That being said, there are some times that Avatar the Last Airbender went to some pretty dark places. Whether it was creepy topics, difficult scenarios, or just plain disturbing scenes, this show could get dark. There we🔜re also some rather sad scenes that could just make you cry like a baby. After all, it was a show that was set in the middle of a war, where one nation had tried to take over the otඣhers through some pretty brutal means. And while there was rarely any blood, the fighting could get pretty intense.
So, let’s take a look at 20 times Avatar: The Last Airbender went WAY too 🤪far. Think we missed⛎ some particularly dark moments? Let us know!
20 Maybe I🅘’m Crazy ꦯ
Towards the end of Season 3💦, Azula is given control of the Fire Nation while her father goes off to destroy the Earth Kingdom (yeah, we’ll talk about that later.) During this time, she becomes increasingly more paranoid, and she starts seeing hallucinations of her mother. By the time Zuko and Katara confront her, she’s barely holding on to what shred of sanity she has left, but it leaves when she’s fighting Zuko. By the end, she’s having a complete breakdown, screaming and sobbing.
What’s incredibly sad about this is that Azula꧟ is fourteen. Barely a teenager, and she’s having a complete mental breakdown. Now throughout the series, you could say that she has always been a bit off, with her psychopathic tendencies, but this is where we see her completely lose control. It’s powerful, sad, and a little scary.
19 Controlling Your Blood Sounds Terrifying 🐻
Remember Hama? The seriously creepy old lady who’s been secretly living in the Fire Nation, even though she’s a waterbender escapee? Yeah, this whole episode was insanely creepy, but the culmination of it is when Hama is showing Katara that she can blood bend. The idea of someone being able t🎃o control the blood in your body is creepy enough, but then we find out that Hama has been stealing people, and planning to use them for her own creepy purposes.
The kicker though is when Hama bloodbends Aang and Sokka, nearly killing them until Katara is forced to bloodbend Hama to stop her. She then says that her purp🐼ose is done. The implications of Katara being capable of bloodben๊ding and actually bloodbending someone are seriously disturbing, and she knows it.
18 🐻 Hey Kids, Let’s Talk About A Heavy🥀 Topic
While the show never outright says the word “genocide,” that’s pretty much what happened to the Air Nomads. Not long after Aang was trapped in that iceberg, Fire Lord Sozin wiped out all of the Air Nomads in a brutal attack. He had no qualms about d𝓀estroying an entire race and culture, which is completely messed up.
The crazy thing is that one hundred years later, Fire Lord Ozai attempts to do the same thing with the Earth Kingdom. On the day of Sozin’s Comet, he sets out to destroy the Earth Kingdom by fire, and is only stopped by Aang. If he had been allowed to keep going, who 🍎knows what he would’ve done? So, the Fire Nation leaders have committed genocide once, and then attempted to do the same thing years later. Yeesh, calm down you hotheads.
17 Their Famil꧙y Life Was Pretty Messed Up
It’s no secret that Zuko and Azula’s home life was pretty dysfunctional. Between their parents, their grandfather, and the expectations the whole nation had on them, it’s actually pretty impressive they aren’t more warped than they are. That being said, they went through a lot. Zuko’s father burned Zuko’s face for speaking out ag🅺ainst him and then refusing to f🌟ight him. He was then exiled. This poor kid just can’t catch a break. No wonder he’s so angry.
But Azula doesn’t get off easy. While she does show her psychopathic tendencies at an early age, it’s also easy to see how she’s been twis✅ted and warped by her father and grandfather. Her mother also essentially rejects her, which damages Azula a lot more than we initially see. In the end, this 🅰emotionally abused girl is the one who has the complete breakdown. It’s all seriously messed up.
16 ൲ Willing To Do Anything ♔
Like I said, Zuko’s family dynamic is very messed up. At one point, Fire Lord Azulon seeks to punish Ozai for speaking out and tells him to kill his firstborn son, Zuko (though I don’t think it would’ꦦve been much of a punishment for him.) But Ursa, Zuko’s mom, makes a deal with Ozai to protect him.
Ursa concocts a poison for Ozai to give to Azulon. In return,ꦑ she will leave the Fire Nation in exile. So basically, while she wasn’t the one who ultimately killed him, Ursa plotted to kill Azulon to save her son’s life. I mean that’s a pretty impossible situation to be in, but dang. She must have been willing to give up anything to save her son. It’s just sad that she had to leave since I think that really hurt Zuko.
15 𒅌 Iroh Loves the Ladies
Now Uncle Iroh is likely hands down one of the best, ins🎶piring, and just genuinely likeable characters in Avatar. He’s funny, but still wise, and he’s just this amazing person who never gives up on his angry, hurting nephew. But that being said, Iroh does have a couple of faults, and one of them is that he’s a tiny bit of a pervert.
This only really happens when Iroh and Zuko meet up with June, a beautiful but formidable bounty hunter. Now Iroh has been known to be a bit of a flirt, but he totally hits on June multiple times, and it kind of creeps her out. He even pretend൲s to be paralyzed with June and Zuko when they’re hit with June’s pet’s venom just so he can be close to her. S🎉orry, Iroh, that’s a little creepy.
14 ♕ He’s Not Just Mostly Dead
In the Season 2 finale, we had Aang and Katara fighting off Zuko and Azula. At one point, Aang realꦰized that he needed to go into the Avatar State, and so he focused his meditation. And he succeeded... until he’s shot by lightning by Azula. Thanks to Iroh, Katara managed to get Aang out of there and used her healing spirit water.
But at that point Aang did briefly die. Katara’s healing managed to bring him back, but he does die for a bit there. This is confirmed in season 3 when Aang is remembering what happened. He says that he went down, that he wasn’t just injured. That’s pretty intense to actually kill off your main character (even thouꦜgh it was short.) Good thing Aang had Katara.
13 💛 Feeling the Sibling L𓄧ove... Not
We🔯 know there’s little love lost between these two siblings, but the way Azula treats Zuko is pretty awful. She’s constantly manipulating him, playing all sorts of mind games with him, which really does mess him up. But what’s also pretty crazy is that she’s tried to kill him multiple times.
When she’s tasked to bring Zuko in, she doesn’t exactly go easy on him. And don’t even get me started on that final Agni Kai between the two. Azula was aiming to kill in every single one of her attacks. And then she shot lightning at Katara, knowing Zu🎃ko will attempt to stop it. That attack nearly killed him, and it would’ve if Katara hadn’t been able to restrain Azula and then heal him. The two siblings mꦅay not get along, but killing people? That’s taking it a little far, Azula.
12 💫 Don’t Ever Go To Lake Laogai ♏
Seriously, Ba Sing Se had a lot of messed up things happening in it, but probably the most disturbing is the Dai Lee, the secret police. These guys pretty much run Ba Sing Se, and anyone who opposes them is taken to 🐼Lake Laogai and brainwashed into obedience.
It gets even creepier when said people are triggered by certain phrases, such as “The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai,” which then gets people to do what the Dai Lee want them to do. What’s worse is that Jet was brainwashed too and w♊as turned agai🌳nst Aang and his gang, which caused some issues. But the idea of brainwashing and hypnotism in general is just plain creepy and for a kid’s show to have it happening is pretty crazy.
11 🏅 🔴 An Endangered Species
There are quite a few messed up things going on in the Fire Nation. They started the Hundred Year War, their leaders were responsible for thousands of deaths, and they even contributed to the near extinction of a powerful species💖: the dragons. Yep, the people of the Fire Nation almost killed all of the dragons.
In the Fire Nation, it was considered the sign of ultimate power if a firebender could slay a d♔ragon, since dragons were the original firebenders. As a result, dragons were hunted relentlessly to the point that everyone thought they were al♌l killed. Zuko and Aang discover that there are at least two dragons left, but the idea that these huge creatures were almost wiped out is kind of crazy, and a little sad. They’re truly beautiful creatures.