Toto, we're not on Nickelodeon anymore. Every implication of the horrible ways bending can be used can be described in graphic detail now!
- Hei-Ran is said to have had the most accidental kills in Agni Kais of anyone who had ever attended the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. One of those girls she accidentally killed was her cousin. Saying this is before the Fire Nation became the Imperial power of Roku and Aang's times, it probably only got worse with time. Also knowing that this is four hundred years plus before there wasn't a crazy Fire Lord and before Zuko and Izumi could right the wrongs of their family, no telling what went down in that school in the ensuing half millennia.
- Jianzhu is a walking embodiment of Nightmare Fuel
- He got his nickname "The Grave Digger" because he killed 5000 people in one go by burying them alive.
- He goes into the gritty, sadistic details towards the end of the book. First he killed all the other Earthbenders in the group in front of their muggle peers, then he promised not to kill them if they all managed to dig holes for themselves by sundown. They all complied, many of them digging with their hands or attacking each other to get a shovel, with many eagerly getting into their holes as a show of obedience to Jianzhu. Jianzhu then did the opposite and buried the ones who obeyed him, presumably only sparing the ones who failed. The worst part might be that he genuinely finds this to be a hilarious story—he laughs like a kid when he decides to tell it. By that time, the man is completely gone.
- His "ends justify the means" outlook causes him to feed Yun to a horrific spirit the second he's no longer of use to him. He also turns around and murders Kelsang right in front of Kyoshi, knowing how much he meant to her.
- He got his nickname "The Grave Digger" because he killed 5000 people in one go by burying them alive.
- Father Glowworm, an ancient spirit of a mountain. All we see of him is a giant bloodshot eye from within a deep cave. When Jianzhu asks Father Glowworm to tell him who is the Avatar between Yun and Kyoshi, the spirit spits out a long trail of revolting slim with hundreds of teeth floating inside. He uses the teeth-filled slime to grind away at Kyoshi's leg to taste her blood and name her the Avatar. Once the truth is out he tries to kill her. Like Koh the Face Stealer, Father Glowworm has a grudge against a past Avatar and wants revenge on the incarnation, taking Yun away when he can't get to her.
- Kyoshi kills Xu Ping An by dropping him from a great height. Did he have time to think about it on the way down...?
- Xu Ping An himself is no walk in the park for a villain who only appears in a scant few chapters; he's the leader of the Yellow Necks, a political movement that boils down a mix of Anarchy Is Chaos and Rape, Pillage, and Burn. Xu Ping An himself happens to be a complete narcissist who is so in love with his own ego he honestly believes he can get away with anything, even if it happens to be mass murder or dunking a man feet-first into boiling-hot water while forcing his family to watch.
- Lek is shot by a shirshu-spit dart, struggles desperately to breathe and dies in slow agony while Kyoshi lies only a few feet away, unable to help him.
- Yun's Dissonant Serenity when Kyoshi sees him again. She doesn't know what or how, but something about Yun just feels off. This is made all the more clear when he easily kills Jianzhu in a graphically horrible scene.
- As Kyoshi is meditating, a vision of Kuruk appears in front of her, begging her for her help in fixing a mistake he made. This is the scene the book ends on.
