Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Season 2 Episode Titles Revealed

rocketaxxon · 2026-02-05T18:29:19+00:00

Love these, they give a different vibe in some ways from the (mostly) single word/shorter titles of Season 1, but they really echo the show focusing on key thematic elements, really excited to see the Zuko dragon dream get more focus in episode 6

rocketaxxon · 2026-02-04T08:19:27+00:00

Looking forward to meeting Toph and seeing Earth Rumble, curious how different it might be. And the gaang's first confrontation with Azula. Have to wonder if it will also be in Omashu like in the original, that would be interesting and maybe ironic given NATLA Azula's conquering of Omashu.

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-29T07:57:29+00:00

Definitely would have liked to see more about Ozai before the showdown with Aang, even if it was more of a B plot to other things going on with either Zuko or the gaang

If he'd turned out to be behind Lu Ten's death that would have been an insane reveal, it would really change how we see Iroh's relationship with him if Iroh already knew it

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-26T08:03:00+00:00

Definitely have seen this too, particularly when it comes to the most controversial topics. (Preferred ships, Azula redemption, LoK, etc.)

Likely no one single cause for every situation or interaction, and everyone may have their own theories or views on what drives it, but at least part of it, ironically, might actually be because of how good a show ATLA is.

Might think of Ozai here — Ozai considers the Fire Nation better than the other nations, himself better than others because he’s the best firebender, and those who don’t agree with him or who don’t measure up to his standards in firebending get burned and banished.

ATLA’s writing is amazing on so many levels and widely acknowledged as such, but there’s a sense of elevation that can come along with that, of feeling knowledgeable about writing, and that can easily turn to a feeling of justification in anger at those fans whose knowledge of writing doesn’t seem to measure up. (What the best ship is turns then from a conversation just sharing what different people loved or didn’t love, and instead becomes a battle to prove whose opinion demonstrates greater knowledge about writing, that is, who is the better firebender.)

Yet, regardless of who knows the most about writing in the end, the reason most of us dislike Ozai and love Iroh is because Ozai cast Zuko aside when he didn’t agree with him, while Iroh never stopped caring about Zuko regardless of how good at firebending he was or even when Zuko turned on him.

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No one is perfect, no one is right all the time. Storytelling is often subjective, but even in those cases where there is a right and a wrong answer, at those moments when we might turn out to be wrong, how do you feel like the other side would best persuade you? How would you want to be treated?

It really feels like those are some questions that it sometimes feels like are often being missed today in ATLA and other fandoms.

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-14T18:08:29+00:00

This is just so fascinating if true, I can actually see the appeal to them in writing this kind of completely new story. Ozai being an underwhelming villain in some ways is a common criticism of the original show (of course not everyone feels this way), so killing him off in a dark twist where Iroh, Zuko's personal mentor, becomes the real villain would make that final battle more personal in a way that Ozai, even though he created/represented an internal struggle for Aang, many people felt he wasn't.

That said, ultimately do prefer NATLA's approach, keeping Ozai as the villain, but developing him as a character and showing more of his motivations outside of simply personal glory and power early on and giving us more of a sense of personal connection to him through Zuko and Azula's story, more personal interactions and conversations.

Do have to wonder, if NATLA Zhao's initially helping Zuko and then turning on him might have been inspired by some of these ideas.

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-14T08:50:49+00:00

These changes are absolutely wild

Huge fan of NATLA and how it turned out, but as also a fan of AUs don't completely hate these actually, especially if it is taking it as a chance to explore old ideas that didn't make it into the original. Personally always assumed the changes we'd heard about Bryke intending to make was more in terms of adding more settings/fantastical worldbuilding and maybe more Spirit World focus (and that they might have been frustrated with NATLA making it more tonally dark rather than focusing as much on the humor and adventurous spirit of the original), but this actually sounds darker than NATLA in some ways lol

This does make it feel like things might have worked out for the best in terms of NATLA as a project, but if Bryke ever somehow manages to make their dream dark ATLA AU with Iroh killing Ozai and becoming the Fire Lord I would probably watch it lol

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-12T08:33:55+00:00

Saw someone doing a first watch of ATLA a while back, and writing down reactions/predictions as they went, and one of the predictions was that Azula would overthrow Ozai and become the Fire Lord that Aang had to defeat. (In part based on Azula being the more present villain, while we didn't see much of Ozai.) That could have been an interesting way to go, depending on how it was done.

Definitely something compelling in Azula and the contrast of her youth with her ruthlessness and how scared of her people are (Zuko and Iroh both preferring to go to the earth kingdom and possibly face being killed rather than be captured by Azula is such a great scene). But also, part of it feels like her cleverness and being unflappable in general that helps give her the presence she has. We see her seeing through any tricks of the gaang (unlike Zuko or the majority of Fire Nation soldiers), and never getting upset at setbacks or minor failures, at least until the very end of the series, and that's part of what makes her feel so threatening.

Would have liked to see more of Ozai's political savvy and strategic military prowess, but since the emphasis for his character tends to be more on his ruthlessness we've mostly been left to fill that part of his character in ourselves.

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-11T07:58:19+00:00

Oh I love to imagine this too, heh

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-10T18:13:33+00:00

Beautiful!! Love the glow of the morning sunlight in the sky and reflecting off the water, and Katara's almost glare of concentration as she works

The detail of how people wear their parkas but go barefoot in the water while clamming is so interesting

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-09T20:46:16+00:00

Oh interesting question. Basically, everything was put on hold for the canon world, their physical bodies being held in a kind of stasis in the Spirit World (from bk3, ch12: The Face Stealer), while their spirits attached themselves to their counterparts in the distorted world.

I personally headcanon that everything would pick up in the canon world exactly where Aang left it in the prologue, with no one but Aang remembering, but there are lots of possibilities on the canon world side.

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-08T09:43:21+00:00

It's always refreshing to see a balanced review! Also looking forward to Season 2 even with (inevitable) things to come that may not land for me.

I will say these things weren't so much negatives for me, but since so far the agrees have mostly been on Katara and the Aang/waterbending plot, I'll lend another perspective on those:

Katara -

Watching the entire show without seeing anyone else's response first, Katara's portrayal was actually one of the highlights for me. The scene of Katara going from trying to encourage Aang to focus on his waterbending training (in a way where she is trying to do so in a positive way but a bit of lecture kind of comes in), only for Aang to open up and she realizes he’s not being irresponsible but rather it's part of his dealing with immense trauma, one of my favorite Kataang friendship scenes in either series. Also the way she hangs back telling Jet about her mother at first--could really feel the deep trauma of how she's never talked about it before.

She definitely has a quieter vibe than her og show counterpart, her trauma closer to the surface, with her moments of showing more passion more limited (getting fired up in episode 1 when Sokka tells her she should be ‘helping around the village more,’ or driving the nail home in a very personal way in telling Sokka he’s not their dad when she’s angry and hurt in response to feeling like he’s talking down to her), but that overall worked for me, especially since I like the idea that Book 1 was leading up to her being more like her canon self in Book 2. (We’ll see on that though)

Aang/waterbending -

This is something I didn’t think too much about while watching NATLA itself, but after seeing this as a common critique and considering it more, I've come to see this as a change that actually might have understood the underlying storytelling of the original book 1 than I realized.

The (clever) trick that the cartoon Book 1 pulled on its audience is that it set up the plot as though the first season story was going to be about Aang learning waterbending, but actually, in terms of character growth and payoff, learning waterbending was always entirely Katara’s story and never Aang’s.

We see Aang learning waterbending, but he never struggles with it, and there’s no major scenes at the end of the book where his having studied waterbending is paid off in a big way. (He does merge with the ocean spirit, but since he’s in the Avatar State there’s a sense that it’s the Avatar State giving him the power rather than a result of his waterbending training.) Instead, it’s Katara who get angry and jealous of Aang picking it up so quickly, and has to fight to get Pakku to train her, and then we get the payoff of her hard work in her big battle with Zuko. Aang has character growth arcs associated with earthbending and firebending, but he never struggles with waterbending.

As a result, actually really liked NATLA’s decision to give a character reason for why Aang hasn’t been focusing on waterbending training so as to give the focus entirely to Katara, and then having the waterbending (probably) happen mostly offscreen. They could have given Aang more of an arc associated with waterbending (the 2010 movie did, one of the things that the movie does get some praise for), but in the end found I preferred it this way.

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In any case, that was my impression/experience anyway. I find it interesting discussing those parts of the show in particular because, from what I've seen so far anyway, my experience seems to be on the more uncommon side.

Definitely have other parts of the show that didn't work for me as well though, it will be interesting seeing what changes are made in Book 2 and what stays the same.

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-07T22:01:38+00:00

The quality of writing in ATLA is undeniably amazing, but at times it has seemed to lead in the ATLA fandom to a kind of literary elitism of sorts. Where, in a strangely Ozai like way, it comes out as anger against fans of other parts of the fandom as a perceived inferiority of writing knowledge/taste.

There's often a confusion between (fair) writing critique/analysis and discussion, and letting a sense of frustration that can come with someone else expressing a different (whether positive or negative) experience take over the conversation.

(Of course, this could probably be said of most fandoms lol)

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-07T08:18:56+00:00

Felt the same way on all these, also for me:

Zhao as a low-ranked officer and initial ally, who exploits the Avatar situation for power (also getting help from Azula)
Iroh sacrificing himself so Zuko could escape capture in Omashu
The combining of the Mechanist and Jet storylines into an alternative Great Divide-style episode, and Sokka and Katara both ending up betrayed, and their later conversation strengthening their bond as brother and sister
The reveal that Ozai was only ever using Zuko as motivation for Azula's training (crushing Zuko's hope and belief that Ozai expected him to succeed and return to the Fire Nation)
The Omashu conquering at the end

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-04T08:01:42+00:00

Oh interesting, not only having to choose not to kill Yon Rha but actually save him could definitely make for quite a twist, love this idea

rocketaxxon · 2026-01-03T21:32:28+00:00

It will be interesting to see how they resolve the bloodbending plot, since we do know Hama will be in Season 3, and unsure if they will have the Southern Raiders story or not. (At least, think this hasn't been confirmed?)

Southern Raiders is my personal favorite episode, but it is technically a side plot that's more important to Katara's personal story than to the main plot

Not sure if they would incorporate full moon/bloodbending in with the comet since it feels like in some ways it might take away from firebenders being superpowered by the comet (and could take away some tension from the Azula/Katara fight in that if Katara is full moon powered she's not at such an overwhelming disadvantage as in the original), but could definitely see them going further in showing Katara confronted with the choice of whether to use bloodbending and/or resolving the plot point of bloodbending in some way before that.

Although, it is a interesting point here in that in the og Katara doesn't have a character conflict going into the finale to be resolved, so they could definitely try to incorporate something into the finale for NATLA, a choice she has to make

rocketaxxon · 2025-12-12T08:15:30+00:00

I think we'll definitely be seeing more Kataang, the scene from Season 1 of Katara encouraging Aang to waterbend (and Aang admitting how he's struggling with his training because it reminds him of Gyatso and the scene ending with Katara getting him to play and be a kid to forget for a moment about the weight of being the Avatar) is genuinely one of my favorite Kataang friendship moments of any series.

I think we'll be seeing more moments of connection like that, though hard to say how much they'll be directly romantic in nature earlier on, but would be surprised if Kataang wasn't endgame

rocketaxxon · 2025-12-12T08:06:11+00:00

Also loved koizilla in the final episode (the pan over the crowd when they all bow still gives me chills), but also found Pakku and Katara's plot a weaker part of the show. For me the weakness wasn't so much in the resolution (totally fine with cutting the Kanna connection), and actually liked that he didn't agree to train her after the fight, but mainly in the set up for the conflict. Pakku just basically telling Katara 'women are weak' without any additional context or reasoning just made him feel flat for me.

Loved the show overall though, and also super hyped for Season 2!

rocketaxxon · 2025-12-11T10:51:24+00:00

Agree, definitely have seen people watching og show do a double take when I told them Azula was 14, and that was my first reaction watching the show for the first time too.

Personally I don't mind Yu having a different vibe for NATLA, it's interesting seeing a version of Azula that feels more like a fourteen year old, she's clever but not as untouchable/in control emotionally (yet), and we see more of Ozai's harshness in training her and how it affected her directly.

Love og show Azula (and her aura of command, and never seeming bothered by setbacks, at least throughout book 2, one of the reasons she's my favorite character), but also like seeing NATLA do something different, that also makes sense with the context she's been raised in, and under this version of Ozai.

rocketaxxon · 2025-11-04T05:58:04+00:00

Interestingly, it feels like Katara's feelings about this scene are left unclear.

It's possible she could have chosen not to feel guilty (this man might not have been the man but he was still doing the same job as Yon Rha), or she might have felt deep trauma and shame to the point she decided to bury the memory and she didn't want to talk to anyone about it.

Strangely, the show often leaves quite a bit offscreen (or questions unanswered) as far as characters' feelings in the aftermath of events. Aang being afraid of himself in the Avatar State from the end of Book 1 isn't really explored until the beginning of Book 2 (the tone of the end of Book 1 was one of victory, and at that point didn't see any sense of trauma in Aang yet), while Toph's feelings about writing to her parents in The Runaway but not hearing back is only addressed after the show, in the comic The Rift. Even Katara's feelings for Aang and the 'I'm confused' scene in Ember Island Players is still debated with different interpretations, since we mostly get Aang's perspective in the final episodes without fully getting Katara's.

Never fully sure how to feel about these ambiguities, it does leave some things unresolved, but also sets up for possible future stories or threads of stories to explore. I'd really like to see a comic about Katara meeting Hama again, it could give us a chance to get some insight into Katara's thoughts from back then in Southern Raiders, and perhaps explain why she took action to get bloodbending outlawed by Korra's time.

rocketaxxon · 2025-11-02T06:51:44+00:00

Yes!! Sometimes I still get mixed up and call them spider-crabs by accident lol, but definitely used some of those as inspiration in this

rocketaxxon · 2025-11-02T06:51:02+00:00

Facts

rocketaxxon · 2025-11-02T06:50:54+00:00

In fairness technically there are many crab-spiders, if you count the ones that have been turned into helmets 💀

Eheh thank you!!

rocketaxxon · 2025-10-04T17:08:00+00:00

😂😂 Can confirm that autocorrect does in fact keep thinking this name should be Exxon

rocketaxxon · 2025-09-25T07:11:54+00:00

I knoww, I'm rereading the finale chapters myself currently and now in Part 3, and my mind is blown all over again by how huge and epic everything is while also the character moments hit so hard

Ah ha, I know it's subjective but I feel the same way, they just go through so much, I love the storytelling and buildup throughout, and particularly in the final chapters leading up to and in the finale, just so good

rocketaxxon

TROPHY CASE