Tear Jerker / Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Episode 1 - Aang

• Mixes with Nightmare Fuel. The episode pulls no punches in portraying Sozin's genocide against the Airbenders as he and his army burn down anyone they come across—including little children. The whole montage runs like a scene from Order 66; the Air Nomads are caught completely off-guard by the attack, the elders stand and fight as best they can whilst the younger ones run and hide, but ultimately it's all for nothing and ends with Sozin personally being the one to kill Gyatso.
  • It's also all but stated that Sozin was the one who killed all the young Air Nomads Gyatso was trying so hard to protect.
  • To make things worse, it is established that the Air Nomads are gathered for a festival to celebrate the very comet that empowered Sozin to destroy them. Even if, like their animated counterparts, the culture of the Air Nomads ultimately survives, the Comet Festival is tainted forever as both the anniversary and the means of the Air Nomad Genocide.
• Aang finding Gyatso's skeleton. He's so overwhelmed with grief that he enters the Avatar state, coming very close to destroying the remains of the building he's in and inadvertently killing Sokka and Katara. When he comes to, all he can do is collapse sobbing in Katara's arms.
• When Zuko becomes hopeful that he'll finally be able to capture the Avatar, Iroh is nowhere near as ecstatic and basically advises his nephew to not hold his breath after many false leads. Needless to say, the last three years have not been kind to them.
  • Related to such, but when Aang escapes the ship, Zuko is right behind him saying "No! Stop!" Except unlike the cartoon, he's not angry; he's desperate because his only hope at returning home / getting his father's love back is slipping through his fingers, right after the Hope Spot of finding him.
• After Iroh explains the imperialist rationale behind the war, Aang asks him if he also believes in that. Iroh pauses and avoids giving a straight answer. As viewers of the cartoon already know (and viewers of this series will eventually find out), he did used to believe, and that period of his life was his greatest shame and a constant source of his present pain.

Episode 2 - Warriors

• Aang disclosing the deconstruction of his Child Prodigy status to Katara. In a flashback to Aang's training, the Air Nomads did not expect his Airbending to be as powerful as he demonstrated; the winds were so strong, he nearly sends a couple other students off a cliff. Aang was very shaken by the experience and developed a fear of his powers.
  Aang: I never wanted to fight, and I'm afraid of hurting someone. Back home, the other kids used to say I was lucky because I never really had to train. But I did have to train. Not to develop my powers, but to keep them under control. No one said anything, but I could tell... they were scared of me, just like how you and Sokka were when I went into the Avatar State.
• It's brief, but during Katara's battle with Zuko, his relentless firebending brings up images of another attack she saw as a little girl: the Fire Nation raiding their village, and Yon Rha torching her mom, Kya, right in front of her.
• Despite everything turning out okay, Suki's mother's fears still come to pass: their village is destroyed, and although we don't see it, several lives are implied to have been lost before Avatar Kyoshi (in Aang's body) turned up and scared off the Fire Nation. It's a stark reminder of the previous Avatars' warnings that despite his motivations being good, wherever Aang goes, destruction is bound to follow, especially with such a high bounty out for his head.

Episode 3 - Omashu

• The execution of the peasant rebels at Ozai's, and by extension Azula's, hands. Made even worse in that these were Fire Nation citizens as opposed to total outsiders which hints that firebenders themselves are far from safe from their ruler's tyranny.

Episode 4 - Into the Dark

• Bumi's change in personality in this adaptation. Unlike his original counterpart who was a kooky yet wise king who never let things get the better of him, this Bumi has turned cynical and is angry with Aang for disappearing. While it may be more realistic that such a situation would cause anyone to turn bitter, it's also sad that Aang and Bumi's reunion isn't as happy as the cartoon's.
  • Their argument at the banquet.
    Aang: Bumi! This is important. Don't you care?
    Bumi: Care? You dare tell me I should care?! Have you been fighting the same fight for a century?! Have you watched your whole world burn down around you?! Hmm?! Let me to you something, Avatar. You may be a hundred years old, but you haven't lived for a hundred years, especially not these hundred years.
    Aang: You can't make me believe you've lost hope. Not you, Bumi.
    Bumi: Oh, really? Challenge accepted!
  • And later when Bumi challenges him to a duel.
    Aang: Please, Bumi! You don't have to do this!
    Bumi: Oh, but I do! Some of us have to fight even when we don't want to. That's what it means to BE IN A WAR! You'd have known about that if you'd been around, but you weren't. You left us. You were the Avatar, and you left us. In this world, you can't rely on anyone, even your friends! Especially your friends.
• During the fight, Bumi brings down two huge boulders and forces Aang, struggling to keep them up with airbending, to choose either to let Bumi or himself get squashed. He claims that he was doing it to teach Aang that the Avatar must be prepared to make a Sadistic Choice, but if he intended for Aang to save himself...
  Aang: Bumi, I can't hold both of them! Help me!
  Bumi: Let it fall. Let it fall, and you win.
  Aang: Bumi, this isn't a game!
  Bumi: Yes, it is. One that requires you to make impossible choices. Do I save this town or that? Who gets the last of the food scraps? The orphanage or the soldiers? You have to make choices like that, day after day, year after year. And that's just to save this one city. You have to save the whole world. Let it fall, Aang, and learn what it means to be the Avatar!
  Aang: NO!
  Bumi: Then the world is doomed.
• The flashback of Lu Ten's funeral is utterly saddening. Iroh sits solemnly by his son's casket while two of the attendees whisper that Iroh will be viewed as a coward for withdrawing from Ba Sing Se, something even Ozai didn’t say. The only ray of light is Zuko who expresses genuine condolence and respect for both Lu Ten and Iroh, offering his uncle Lu Ten's medal which "gave me strength", and choosing to sit next to his uncle as tears start streaming down Iroh's face.
  • One small detail about Zuko choosing to sit with his uncle during the funeral is that Zuko's the only one who stayed with him. Ozai only offered his condolences (in the most unemotional way possible, no less), but he didn’t take a seat next to his grieving brother. Azula, if she even attended the funeral, most likely didn’t say anything. There’s also the implication that Iroh’s wife was probably dead around that time so he only had his nephew to offer more sincere condolences and to sit with him.
  • For added measure, "Leaves From the Vine" can be heard playing softly as Iroh tears up.
• Iroh's interactions with the Earth Kingdom soldier in charge of his imprisonment count as both this and Nightmare Fuel. After losing his 19-year-old brother (and in a way that there was nearly nothing left of him to bury at that) he has every right to be angry at the Dragon of the West, but rather than handle the situation properly, he smacks Iroh while he's chained up, treats him with utter disrespect, tries to murder Iroh after, and throws a knife into Iroh's back when Iroh spares him.
  • The aforementioned funeral scene comes up after said murder attempt with the soldier claiming that Iroh has no humanity nor knows of loss.

Episode 5 - Spirited Away

• Azula's scene early on in the episode, after she's received a chewing out from Ozai for trying to manipulate him. She goes ballistic on a sparring partner, nearly killing him had Mai not intervened. Evil she may be, but Azula is still just a teenager, and she's already cracking under her father's ruthless demands. It's quite different from her animated counterpart, who didn't let her composure slip until she was well into her breakdown.
  Ty Lee: You're perfect.
  Azula: (sounding on the verge of tears) It's not enough.
• We finally get to see how Kya died, and worse, it's all through the eyes of a Katara who could not have been more than seven or eight years old.
  • Kya hides Katara under the bed and prepares to make her final stand against a Firebender. When young Katara secretly tries to help, she only makes it worse by trying--and failing--to bend a nearby bucket of water, thus making him think that Kya is the tribe's last Waterbender. Kya, not wanting her only daughter to die, tells him it was her bending and gets completely immolated for her heroism. Poor Katara can only turn away, stifling her screams of horror.
• Sokka's worst memory: the day of his trial as a warrior. Despite apparently making the passing grade, a snide comment from a boy his age reveals that it was actually a near-disaster that wrecked half the equipment. To rub more salt into the wound, Sokka actually overhears Hakoda talking with Bato—and not in a proud way, despite Bato's attempts to defend him by pointing out that even he, a seasoned warrior, had trouble maneuvering around the ice floes.
• Aang reuniting with the late Gyatso in the spiritual world is both heartwarming and this. When Aang has to leave to save his friends and asks his surrogate father if they can talk more when he gets back, Gyatso's spirit (aware it's most likely the last time they see each other) briefly hesitates, then lies that of course they can to make sure Aang leaves.

Episode 6 - Masks

• The scene from "The Blue Spirit" between Aang and Zuko is retained here, but first, there's a scene of Aang and Zuko hiding from Zhao's troops where the two actually chat, rather than Zuko attacking Aang on sight. The discussion turns to Zuko's obsession with capturing Aang, with Zuko revealing he wants to be heir to the throne because that's what he thinks everyone expects of him. Then Aang goes and says the word "compassion". Big mistake.
  • During all this, Zuko furiously declares that his father, the man who scarred him and banished him for having compassion, is a great man, and echoes Ozai's declaration that "Compassion is a sign of weakness." He is literally an abuse victim who has been gaslit into accepting and justifying his abuser's excuses.
• The flashback of Zuko getting his scar. Once he realized that he was going to have to fight his father, Zuko bows down and begs for his forgiveness while Ozai demands that Zuko rise and fight. Iroh tries to get his brother to stop, but Ozai insists that the Agni Kai take place. Not only does Iroh watch his nephew be forced to fight his father, but Iroh realizes just how cruel Ozai can be to his own family.
• The final flashback of Zuko's banishment. After Ozai sends him on his impossible quest, Zuko struggles not to cry, clearly wanting to save what little dignity he has left. Making it worse, this version of Ozai actually seemed to consider burning Zuko as enough punishment at first...until Zuko challenges his worldview again. Then Ozai banishes him.
• Lieutenant Jee's realization after Iroh finally tells him just why they were assigned to Zuko's crew. Every man on board was initially a member of the 41st Division—the very same one Zuko was unwilling to sacrifice as mere cannon fodder, at great personal risk to himself.
  Lieutenant Jee: The 41st? We're the 41st.
  Iroh: And you're all alive because of my nephew's sacrifice.
  • Unlike the animated series, where most of Zuko's men were roughly middle-aged, almost all of the crew are young and relatively close to Zuko's age. The 41st Division had probably only recently graduated from training, which adds a new level of horror about what would have happened to them if Zuko had not spoken up.
• Zuko's expression when every single soldier on board bows to him. As evidenced by his conversation with Aang, the poor thing clearly doesn't know what to make of any sort of kindness or sincerity directed his way, and although he tries to hide it, it's still rather obvious to the viewer that Zuko is visibly affected by their actions.
  • Iroh is visibly tearing up while this happens. He just loves Zuko so much, and to see him finally getting the respect and love he has always deserved probably meant a great deal to him as well.
• Iroh choking up as he scolds Zuko for disappearing. Knowing what happened to his own son, it's not that hard to imagine what outcome he was most afraid of.
  Iroh: I would appreciate it if you let me know whether or not you're still alive. There actually are a few of us who care about...that sort of thing.
• Aang returns to the Spirit World to talk with Gyatso again, only to see that he has moved on. The monk's room, so full of warmth and mementos from the Air Nation seemingly only moments ago, now lies bare and dark once more. A disappointed Aang then returns to his physical body in silence, knowing he has missed another chance to spend more time with his beloved mentor.

Episode 7 - The North

• Zuko's face when Lieutenant Jee tells him that Dang is going to arrest him for treason. He is crushed that Ozai would think that he would turn against his father.
  • The fact that Zuko being under arrest for treason was a trap to kill Zuko. Jee thought he was protecting his prince but was actually leading him into a trap that almost took his life.
  • Iroh and Jee's reactions to seeing Zuko's ship blow up in the distance. All Iroh can do is whisper his nephew's name.
• Pakku scolding Aang that he should have focused more on his training while he was traveling. As he and Arnook walk away, Pakku remarks that they won't be able to count on the Avatar for help, leaving Aang crushed.
• Katara talking excitedly with Pakku, who offers his condolences about the status of the Southern Water Tribe. He even points her in the direction of a teacher and tells her that she can learn her true purpose. Then Katara arrives for her lesson and discovers that women are only allowed to learn healing techniques in the Northern Water Tribe.
• Yue remarks that Kuruk's memory has almost faded away since he spent almost all his time in the Spirit World instead of helping humanity. When Aang meets with Kuruk, he reveals that this was because dark spirits were on the verge of crossing over, so he had to stay in the Spirit World to fight them. Because of his fighting, his soul was injured and corrupted. He then makes it very clear that if he were to take possession of Aang like Kyoshi did, he would have little to no control of the Avatar State.
  • When Aang tells Kuruk about the vision of Agna Qel'a being destroyed, Kuruk admits that if he had a vision of it, then it will happen. The only thing Aang can do is try to make sure that the entire Northern Water Tribe isn't destroyed along with it.
  • Kuruk choking up when talking about his lover Ummi, who had her face stolen by Koh. Kuruk blames himself for not being strong enough.

Episode 8 - Legends

• It's brief, but watch Iroh's expression as he sees Zuko off while the battle between the firebenders and waterbenders take place. It's the face of a man who has sent one son off to die in battle, and now, he's about to do the exact same thing a second time over.
• Momo's Disney Death after saving a child during the battle.
• Yue sacrificing herself to bring the dead Moon Spirit back.
  • What's worse is that in this iteration, Yue knows that Sokka will physically try to stop her, once she tells him of her plan. To prevent this, she gives him one last kiss...and ices his feet in place while he's distracted. Now helpless, the only thing Sokka can do is cry and beg her to come back as she descends into the pool.
• Hahn's death. While his animated counterpart's (apparent) demise was treated as a joke due to his incompetence and general dislikability, this kinder and braver Hahn dies fighting to protect Chief Arnook, who can only wordlessly clap the warrior's shoulder for his sacrifice before he leaves.
• Another victim of the battle is a young novice waterbender who was put under Katara's command early in the siege. She is visibly saddened upon seeing his body.
• While Pakku does eventually show some respect to Katara by sending a squad of waterbenders to support her, there is no true reconciliation between the two such as Pakku realizing that her grandmother is his former fiancée. And although he offers her a place at the Northern Water Tribe, Katara has to decline, especially since Aang is still in need of a waterbending teacher.
• When Zhao reveals that Zuko's entire quest was nothing more than Ozai's plan to motivate Azula to grow stronger and that he was never going to be accepted back home, the prince is devastated and enraged. After the battle, his entire demeanor is of someone who has no idea what to do now that his entire life's purpose has been taken from him.
• As awesome as Koizilla is, the reason behind its rampage is really sad. It’s not just fighting back against the Fire Nation, it’s also trying to find its dead companion. Had Yue not sacrificed herself to save the Moon Spirit, it would have gone out into the world on a hopeless search and Aang would have been lost forever.
• Aang thinking that all the deaths from the attack are his fault because he wasn't strong enough.
• Sokka tries to get Aang excited about learning earthbending because this means going back to Omashu and seeing Bumi again. Shortly after, Omashu is shown as being taken over by the Fire Nation with Bumi in chains.