History Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbender2024S1E8Legends

** Hahn. In the original, his last scene had him thrown overboard into the Artic water never to be heard from again, and no-one would care about him either way. Here, he's a definite casualty of the siege.

* BittersweetEnding: Aang is able to protect the Northern Water Tribe from destruction and the Moon Spirit is restored. Unfortunately, Yue gave up her life for her people and the Northern Water Tribe suffered from severe casualties, including Hahn and Katara's pupil. While Zuko and Iroh are alive and escaped from the city, Zuko now knows that his father was more concerned about playing cruel games with him and his sister. Not to mention that Ozai managed to seize Omashu during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe, meaning that he's closer to conquering the Earth Kingdom.

-->'''Zhao''': Your mission? Your "mission" was a sham. Did you really think the Fire Lord was going to take you back? Ozai was playing with you. It was all a game. And the winner is the one without the scar from Daddy.

* WeaponOfXSlaying: Avatar Kuruk had devised a dagger capable of killing spirits. Somehow over centuries it ended up in the possession of Fire Mages, and is given to Zhao as a means to kill the corporeal Moon spirit.

* AdaptationalDumbass: In the original, after possessing Aang, the Ocean Spirit is shown to be very deliberate in its actions, only attacking Fire Nation forces, while being careful to avoid attacking any Water Tribespeople or buildings. Here, the Ocean Spirit is indicated to be little more than a swirling, barely conscious force of wrath, to the point it doesn't even use formal waterbending motions, instead lashing out blindly at everything in its path. According to Yue, it's searching for its lost partner in a blind rage, and because it'll obviously never find it, will continue on forever.

* AdaptationalExplanation: It's never explained in the cartoon why the Moon and Ocean Spirits came to the mortal realm and permanently took vulnerable, physical forms. Here, they are indicated to only come once a year on a specific date, and only remain for a single night before withdrawing to the Spirit World. Yue suggests that they do this to understand how it feels to be mortal.

* DiesDifferentlyInTheAdaptation: The Moon Spirit is fatally stabbed with a special knife, rather than scorched by Zhao's firebending.

* WeaponOfXSlaying: Avatar Kuruk had devised a dagger capable of killing spirits. Sometimes over centuries it ended up in the possession of Fire Mages, and is given to Zhao as a means to kill the corporeal Moon spirit.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: The Fire Nation war balloons weren't introduced in canon until "The Day of Black Sun" in Book 3, ''Fire'', aside from the prototype seen in "The Northern Air Temple". The latter makes their debut here, where Zhao uses them to bypass the battlefield, and access the Spirit Oasis.

** Pakku relented and started training Katara because he was once engaged to her grandmother, who left for the Southern Tribe because of the sexist attitudes of the Northern Tribe. Here Katara refuses to stand down against the siege and other female waterbenders stand up with a desire to fight and protect their home, and afterward offered to help train her.

* AdaptedOut: Since the interaction with Koh was moved up, Zuko doesn't abduct an unconscious Aang by running out into the tundra, nor does he have the one-sided "rematch" with Katara.

* HollywoodDarkness: Most of the episode takes place at night and there is a uniformity to the lighting. When the Moon spirit is killed and all moonlight is gone, this is mostly represented through DeliberateMonochrome.

* AdaptationalContextChange: In the cartoon, Bumi gave up Omashu without a fight once he realized he couldn't win. Here, Azula led the army to take it by force.

* {{Bookends}}: Season One begins and ends with the Fire Lord revealing that the big attack on a nation was merely a distraction from the real military campaign. In the first episode, it was an attack on the Earth Kingdom to distract the world from the Air Nomad genocide. In this episode, it was an siege on the Northern Water Tribe to distract the world from the fall of Omashu.

* AdaptationalWimp: The way Bumi is hauled before Azula battered and exhausted implies that he was legitimately defeated in battle, unlike his animated counterpart who willingly surrendered when the invasion began so he could hide his time for an opportunity to liberate Omashu later.

* AdaptationalBadass: Zuko does significantly better in his fight against Katara, likely helped by not [[HomeFieldAdvantage challenging a waterbender while standing on a glacier]]. Rather than Katara taking him out in [[CurbStompBattle one move]], he manages to hold his own, and they're still fighting when the Moon Spirit dies, rendering her powerless.

* WeHaveReserves: Ozai is unbothered by the near complete loss of the Fire Navy at the North Pole, stating that it's a pity but not unexpected. When the Fire Sage asks why even attack the North if it was an unlikely victory from the start, Ozai reveals that the Siege was always meant to a distraction from Omashu, which Azula successfully conquered. The fact he's willing to sacrifice an entire naval fleet for a diversion showcases the size of the Fire Nation's military and Ozai's disregard for the soldiers' lives since he always has more in reserves.

* DistinctionWithoutADifference: When Iroh presses Zhao on his plans to kill the Ocean and Moon Spirits, Zhao quickly clarifies that he'd never kill the Ocean Spirit, noting that would lead to the deaths of the entire Water Tribe, [[EvenEvilHasStandards which he claims he'd never do]]. He then states he intends on only killing the Moon Spirit, even though this would have the same devastating effect on the Water Tribe (and the world at whole). He even boasts about having wiping out an entire race of benders, implying even he understands the lack of difference on a certain level.