“Katara reminds Zuko of Azula/Zuko and Katara are sibling coded”
There is exactly one instance of Zuko comparing someone in the gaang to his sister:
IT’S AANG. And it's not hard to see why he makes this connection. Growing up, he was always trying to catch up to Azula (as a bender and as a child of the royal family vying for affection from Ozai and Azulon). During his banishment, he is literally trying to catch up to Aang as he chases him all over the world. They represent similar goals in his life that he can never quite reach because he feels like the universe (luck) is on their side and actively against him. This parallel is made explicit again in the crystal catacombs; Zuko's choice is not framed as Azula or Katara, but as Azula or Aang.
Speaking of Katara, though, their interaction does parallel another from earlier in the season: Song from The Cave of Two Lovers. After inviting him & Iroh over for dinner with her family, she joins him on the porch in the evening torchlight--a romantic setting if ever I've seen one. But Zuko isn't ready for romance, or any sort of intimacy.
When Song reaches out to Zuko, he literally pushes her away. In another bid to connect with him emotionally, she shows him the burn scar on her leg which leaves Zuko horrified. This moment primes him to start empathizing with other people--the main skill Zuko develops in book 2.
It culminates in the crystal catacombs when he reaches out to Katara with empathy ("I'm sorry. That's something we have in common"). When Katara reaches out to him the way Song did, he's open, vulnerable, and accepting. Note that Katara and Zuko are also in a cave full of green crystals, which echoes the cave of two lovers where Katara and Aang first kissed.
So we have this beautiful scene with Zuko and Katara where prior implicitly or explicitly romantic scenes for both of them are referenced, and you expect me to believe that Zuko is thinking about...Azula? Or that Katara is thinking about Sokka??? The writers and artists knew EXACTLY which relationships this scene was meant to parallel and they were not subtle with it.
I think Katara and Azula have some interesting narrative parallels, but there is precisely 0 indication that Zuko thinks of her that way. They serve completely different roles in each others' stories than their respective siblings that are MUCH more comparable to the roles their love interests play.
If Katara and Azula have some narrative parallels and Zutara was endgame, could that mean that Azula was Aang's true love interest all along, and Azulaang could only be endgame after Azula's redemption was done in the way Aaron Ehasz imagined?
Mike was on Sam's laptop; Sam, sleeping next to him on the same bed, was slowly waking up.
Mike: Morning, sleeping beauty.
Sam: Mike...? What are you doing on my laptop? Looking up more smutty outfits you want me to put on?
Mike: A part of me had considered that, but in actuality, something's just occurred to me. You ever heard of a group of ghost hunters behind the popular paranormal YouTube channel Dead True?
Sam: Maybe once or twice, why?
Mike: They've staged all their content.
Sam: Shocker.
Mike: But they've announced that they've been sent to a deserted tropical island, Akishima, for their first professionally funded episode.
Sam: Ok. You think they'll run into a real horror for a change, but will die before they get a chance to record it and make it go viral?
Mike: Most likely. We ought to check it out, see if it'll be just another boring night at the office for these guys or not. You down?
On set of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 with Toph, more practical sets, and 'Fire Nation succession' (exclusive)
In early March 2024, the principal stars of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix’s live-action retelling of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon, gathered over Zoom under uncertain pretenses. A request for a seemingly general meeting about season 2 came “out of the blue, completely random” within weeks of the season 1 premiere, Ian Ousley (boomerang-throwing Sokka) tells Entertainment Weekly.
The show seemed like a success on paper. Based on the publicly shared stats, the show reached 21.2 million views within four days on Netflix, topped the streamer’s English-language TV chart, and broke into the top 10 in 92 countries. Yet, when it came to the prospect of a renewal, “Some people felt confident and some people were really very nervous,” Kiawentiio (waterbending Katara) notes.
“You just never know,” Elizabeth Yu (Fire Nation Princess Azula) adds. “Sometimes a show could be huge and there just isn't a place for it to get to see the story through.”
Ousley, Kiawentiio, and Yu joined the call with Gordon Cormier (Aang), Dallas Liu (Zuko), and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Iroh), with Daniel Dae Kim(Fire Lord Ozai) taking charge of the conversation. It wasn't long before he dropped a bomb: “I’m sorry if this was unexpected, but they are not able to announce a season 2 for our show.”
The faces of the young stars — who grew up on set making season 2 — said it all. “I'm not hiding it very well,” the star behind the titular Avatar admits of that Zoom call, “but I feel like I was almost so shocked that I was smiling out of a coping mechanism.”
Ousley has one issue with that video in hindsight. “They zoomed in on my face and I'm tearing up. That was [from a different call] when Albert Kim, who was our season 1 showrunner, told us how proud of us he was,” the actor recalls. “When Daniel was like, ‘Season 2’s not happening,’ I was like, ‘Hmm. I don't know if I'm buying this.’”
He had good reason to be suspicious. Seconds later, Kim broke the real news: “They’re not able to announce a season 2 because they would like to announce season 2 and season 3.”
“[We] group FaceTimed within three minutes of the Zoom finishing,” Cormier recalls. “We all talked for like 45 minutes, all just expressing our joy to get back to it.”
The Aang gang officially reassembled later that September, about three years after filming season 1, to shoot both 2 and 3 back-to-back over the course of a calendar year — all to see the full live-action adaptation through to the end.
A significant time jump was built into the season 2 plan to account for the cast’s real-time aging. When Jabbar Raisani, a lead season 2 executive producer, first met Cormier, “He literally went up to my belly button,” he points out, “and now he's taller than me.” Returning to Netflix this June 25, the story picks up when the characters are noticeably older, though Raisani mentions, “We don’t get into how many months it is” after the events of that season 1 finale.
It’s at least clear that a lot happened during that span off screen, including Aang and Katara becoming much more adept at waterbending. Raisani and his EP counterpart, Christine Boylan, used that time jump to solve a time-and-resources problem. “There are so many adventures that exist in the animated series that we couldn't put in the show,” Boylan says. “A lot of it falls in between seasons, and it can happen even in between episodes.”
There’s still plenty of ground to cover, including what transpires in the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Sei and the arrival of fan-favorite Toph (Miyako), the blind earthbender and a crucial member of Team Avatar.
The seat of Earth Kingdom power
Boylan, promoted from her season 1 position of co-executive producer, says they had two requests heading into the sophomore run: more practical sets and what she calls “Fire Nation succession.”
The impact of the first point is apparent on a gloomy day in late February 2025 on the Vancouver production. Raisani, who also served as a director and visual effects supervisor on season 1, estimates they had “10 times” more sets and locations this time around, while the Volume, an LED-lit stage used for virtual production, was scaled back.
One such set lies in the city’s Flavelle, Port Moody location, where a sprawling makeshift village depicts different boroughs of Ba Sing Se, the next target in Fire Lord Ozai’s mission for global domination. Imagery of Badgermoles and Lion Turtles adorn the nearby roofing as Easter eggs.
It’s the same location where Shōgun, FX’s Emmys-sweeping historical epic, previously set up shop. Boylan acknowledges, “Are we going to look like Shōgun?” became a recurring question, given the Asian influence and medieval time period. To ensure the answer remained no, they went back to the cartoon for inspiration.
“The rules are specifically that the Earth Kingdom is Japan and China, the Fire Nation is Southeast Asia, the Air Nomads are very much Tibet, and then the Water Tribes are First Nations,” production designer Michael Wylie mentions on a stroll through the upper and lower rings of their Ba Sing Se — distinctions established by Avatar: The Last Airbendercreators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
This cultural fusion — visible through the various food markets, bazaars, and tea shops along the main streets — is reflective of the writers’ launching pad for the season arc, which the executive producers describe as “the immigrant experience.” It came straight from the source material, while the writers’ room also pulled from personal experiences and historical research.
As civilians of the surrounding areas become displaced by the Fire Nation, more and more refugees, including Zuko and Iroh, who’ve been living off the grid, make their way to the capital. However, upon arrival, a propaganda machine is in full effect to persuade the Earth King’s subjects that “there is no war in Ba Sing Se” (to quote a familiar phrase from the animated original).
“Underground” (i.e. the indoor stages at the neighboring CMPP Studios in Vancouver) lies a sprawling network of gravelly tunnels illuminated by glowing gems embedded in the walls. These are the Crystal Caves, where Joo Dee (Amanda Zhou), Ba Sing Se’s Cultural Ambassador, is undergoing a reprogramming of sorts. On set, Boylan makes references to Get Out and HBO’s The Sympathizer.
“This is a show about life during war time,” Boylan says. “This is a show about these kids bonding. This is a show about these kids trying to come of age in this world and remake the world in a better way.”
Cormier calls himself "the Half Avatar" at this point, a reference to how Aang now has two elements under his belt but still needs to master earth and fire. “We have this banger first episode where everything comes together and we reintroduce everybody," he says.
Viewers have already seen glimpses of the premiere, which involves Aang and Katara subduing a sea serpent while guiding refugees across a treacherous path. Cormier filmed the sequence atop a surfboard rig in front of blue screen to emulate the Avatar skating across the water’s surface.
“It was on a wire so it would sway, but we’re also trying to move our bodies in the sense that we’re waterbending,” he recalls. “That was quite difficult. Not for Kiawentiio, though. She got it within the span of like 40 minutes of rehearsing.”
As Katara mentors Aang in waterbending, Kiawentiio did the same for Cormier, who says his costar was “incredible coaching me in between takes.”
Katara is a formidable bender and healer at this stage of the story, and Kiawentiio was eager to adapt a particular arc from the cartoon: the Painted Lady. Katara dresses as this figure from folklore to help immigrants going through tough times.
“I felt so beautiful as the Painted Lady,” she says. “And, sure, the makeup took longer than I had ever been in this chair beforehand, but it was totally worth it. The girls ate it up. I want to shout them out because of how much detail is in the makeup.”
The Painted Lady arc doesn’t come into play until the third season of the animated original, but according to Kiawentiio, the writers tried various ways to adapt this plot point before realizing “it’s not going to be able to fit anywhere else” in their grand plan.
Following the tone of season 2, similar animation-to-live-action remixes are in store again, including with Sokka. “There’s so much weight that gets shifted around,” Ousley acknowledges. “The original animated show is amazing and also very emotionally deep, but it also touches on a lot of very mature topics that translate differently.”
For him, it was important to make sure Sokka wasn’t moving on too quickly from the loss of Princess Yue (Amber Midthunder), his love interest whose spirit returned to the moon in the season 1 finale’s Water Tribe battle. “That was just trying to make sure it didn’t look like he was a playboy, to be honest,” Ousley continues. “When you find him here in season 2, he has gone through something very traumatic where he’s still feeling a lot of responsibility.”
Toph as nails
Another member of Team Aang enters the fold in season 2. On set, it’s easy to point out her home in Ba Sing Se. Just look for the Beifong family crest: a winged boar.
Toph Beifong is the daughter of an affluent family in the Earth Kingdom city. She’s blind, so her parents treat her like a delicate child, when in reality she’s one of the most proficient earthbenders in the world. In between takes, Ryan Halprin, another EP, plays footage on his laptop of “Toph vision” — what it looks like when the girl uses her bending to see by tapping into the vibrations of the earth.
Batman’s SONAR surveillance system in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight became an inspiration for the visuals. “I really started with Miyako,” Raisani says of developing that element. “It is about how she moves and how she functions as an earthbender.”
The team auditioned a wide swath of performers for the role, including blind, visually impaired, and low-vision actors. According to Boylan, a challenge emerged because “Toph can see, just not in the traditional sense.”
Miyako was someone who auditioned “for a couple parts” on season 1, the actress says, but she surmises she was too young at the age of 13 for any of them. The casting director kept her self-tape on file and, five years later, the Toph role came around. “That was a blessing in disguise,” Miyako says.
“She is the blunt truth teller of the group,” Boylan describes the new addition. “She has no shame about pretty much anything, which is the best kind of person to have along with you. She's also a tank.”
Blindness consultant Joe Strechay and his assistant trained with Miyako for six months prior to filming, in addition to attending every stunt rehearsal. The actress wore various contact lenses, some of which restricted her vision, to enhance the look. “My biggest concern was actually portraying a character who's blind or has low vision because I am not and I will never know what that's like,” Miyako says, while acknowledging Strechay’s team “took a lot of pressure off.”
A self-professed “hardcore fan” of the Nickelodeon series with her older brother, the actress describes her first day on set: filming the character's introduction. Aang and friends first witness her in action as “the Blind Bandit,” a participant in the underground “Earth Rumble” fighting tournament facing down the Boulder, a beefy sumo wrestler-type earthbender.
“I felt very nervous,” she remembers of that day. “It was not only Toph’s entrance, but it was mine. I needed to show what I was made of. I needed to show what I was gonna do for the rest of the season, and this sets the tone.”
Heated sibling rivalry
Inside the Crystal Caves stage in summer 2025, the team prepares a different kind of fight scene, one between Zuko and Azula. Liu, with his prior martial arts training, performs a backflip on command to dodge oncoming fire blasts (to be inserted in post). He lands with ease and performs a bending move with his arms, indicating the dispersing of his sister’s blue flames.
Yu, too, appears confident in her element. This time around, she arrives to set with sharp, extended fingernails to emulate that character feature in the animated show. The actress, also known for Todd Haynes' film May December, later comments on that subtle addition in a May 2026 interview.
“I went to Rebecca, who was the head of the makeup department,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Can we try it?! What do you think?’ Because it's so iconic from the animation. They're very claw-like. She was like, ‘If you're down with wearing long nails for a year straight, then yes, we can do it.’”
Discussing their Crystal Caves clash, Liu remembers how “the nail punctured a hole in my hand at one point.”
“I felt terrible,” Yu responds, “but I felt like Azula did her job…. They were a real-life weapon, almost.”
The sibling rivalry remains heated throughout season 2 as that idea of “Fire Nation succession” lingers in the characters’ minds. Zuko remains in exile but always with the promise of redemption should he capture the Avatar, while Azula is determined to prove herself as the rightful heir.
It's all about “trying to become dad's favorite" and "trying to play the game in order to try to succeed,” Yu says.
“I love royalty stories, I love sibling rivalries,” Boylan adds. “I am a reader of history, and pulling from different battles and different monarchies and all of those unstable world events was super interesting to inform the Fire Nation side of things.”
To enhance this sibling dynamic, the writers’ gave Zuko and Azula’s mom, who features in a much smaller storyline in the original, an expanded presence in the live-action drama. Lily Gao (Twisted Metal) portrays Ursa, whose memory plagues both of her children in their teenage years.
“The reason they can be so feisty with each other and so hurtful towards each other is because they are family, because they experienced trauma on such a deep level,” Liu explains. “It was only the two of them that know truly what happened. It really adds another layer to this sibling dynamic. It's not just a rivalry. It is an older brother and a younger sister trying to figure out who they are and how to handle healing from this [in] two very, very drastically different ways.”
Liu adds, "Two different ways, two different colors of fire."
It's a long road ahead for these children of the Fire Nation, and the actors already shot more standout moments coming for the final season. Those include the “Agni Kai” firebender duel, which Liu enthusiastically calls “the coolest thing I've ever done in my life."
Another is the final face-off against Ozai. While on set, an executive producer mentions how they had to preemptively save a chunk of their budget on season 2 “knowing we’re going to need to go all-out.”
"It was huge," Cormier remarks. "Everything about it was big. I don't think we've ever shot a fight sequence as long as that one took. It was probably over the span of two weeks, and I think we went back to it quite a bit...Lots of wires, lots of insane stunts."
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The ending of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is on everyone's minds even while filming season 2 last year. Boylan carries around a giant white binder labeled “season 3” while filming the Crystal Caves episodes. At one point, her assistant runs over to pull her away from the shoot, saying, “Season 3 Netflix meeting in 15 minutes.” Gabe Llanas, a co-executive producer, mentions in between takes, “We’re rewriting season 3 while working on season 2."
Liu and Yu remain deeply grateful and visibly enthused to be able to tell the entirety of the main Avatar story, even if the double-renewal first came with a fake-out.
“While we thought season 1 was good, we knew that we could do better,” Liu says. “Because so much time had passed, we were really ready to prove ourselves as actors. As young indigenous actors, we really wanted to show the world [that] this is an opportunity that has been presented to us that we're not gonna take for granted."
Proposing what might be the dumbest AU to hit the fandom yet that I'm probably not even the first to think of but I've been nostalgic for TMNT so I couldn't shake it 😭😭
I have a long-standing headcanon that Iroh got some of Uncle Iroh's connection to the spirits, and that his prowess in firebending is due to abilities in meditation and concentration that didn't come naturally to Zuko. I think he's a little like Jinora and Ikki and Bumi in that he can see spirits to some degree even outside the portals, or at least has a little easier time with spiritual things than the average bender.
Asami... less so.
She's a bit more practical, and while she finds spirits interesting I think she approaches it from a more intellectual place than Iroh. She'd want to learn more about spirits, and her canon request to go see the spirit world reflects that, too. But I don't think Asami will ever be particularly spiritual.
So, together, I think the spirits have a place in their lives but in a rather practical way. Spirits exist, they should be respected and consulted when relevant, but that's maybe it.
I had something else a bit different in mind for Azula.
Aang doesn't take away Azula's bending because he knows that'll be overkill, it'd worsen her condition, she was already restrained beforehand, and he'd realize that there is such a thing as fates worse than death, and Aang doesn't believe the air nomads would condone that anymore than inflicting unprovoked deaths.
Instead, Aang asks if she's taken to a private island where her only means of escape is Appa and, from there, Aang shows her how to open and master her chakras. Zuko reluctantly agrees.
Aang carefully gets Azula interested in Aang's offer. Aang and Azula stay on the island for over a week. Azula opens a chakra each day. Some Azulaang teases happen between them.
Once the task was done, Aang asks Azula to be his nomadic partner. Azula accepts.
Aang and Azula run into Mai and Ty Lee. Ty Lee acts suspicious and on-guard around Azula at first, which Azula now understands and sincerely apologies for forcing her to leave the circus. Mai doesn't bear Azula as much ill will because she knows she joined Azula willingly.
Aang asks if he could try giving Ty Lee airbending with Aang's energybending and she accepts. After Aang successfully bestows Ty Lee airbending, Aang and Ozai's former angels seek others who meet most the airbending criteria and give them the choice to be empowered by airbending.
Me: "The live action Avatar series is the worst! The writers did Azula and Zuko dirty."
Me now after looking at the comics: "Maybe I judged you too harshly."
Yeah, honestly - NATLA makes mistakes, but while watching it you really get the impression that they at least try. You know? That was the vibe I got at least. Some decisions were really weird, and the number one wtf decision was to swap the word "honor" for "glory" in Zuko's arc which COMPLETELY MISSES THE POINT OH MY GOD. Wtf was that. There were other things, like taking away Sokka's sexism arc, or mellowing down Katara, but all in all it's a functioning adaption that has some hits and misses, I feel like. I really hate the costume designs tho. The difference between the post-Atla content and NATLA for me is that one desperately tries to cram the story and the characters into a predefined box (whether they fit or not), while the other one attempts to creatively play with the characters a bit. The adaption does not have follow the show one to one. It's okay if they deviate, especially if it benefits the story. It's when they try to cram something into a box is when they have their misses; like, they were most likely just too afraid to give Sokka a sexism arc in our day and age. They probably were also too afraid to depict Azula as an actual villain, and hey crammed her into a box as well (and Mai and Ty Lee as well - and that was the weakest part of the show for me). But they also attempted to play a bit by suggesting that Ozai is a conscious manipulator that does not treat Azula as a golden child but rather constantly threatens her with a "demotion" of sorts. Is this something I wanted to see? No. Do I still like it more than some stupid-ass supposedly canon panels where Aang agrees to off Zuko if push comes to shove despite not being able to end Ozai? Yes.
And I'll watch Season 2 by the way. Stuff's different there but I'd like to see how they spin it further. It's a bit like reading a fanfic for me. All in all I feel like NATLA did not understand the characters all that well, but it's still better than whatever the comics are doing, and they have been consistent in their own little NATLA universe which is also a bonus.
I'd forgive all of that if Aang were to actually master not just all forms of waterbending but all the ways of the Water Tribes.
Azula's more humanized here, but she manipulated traitors to their deaths and worked with Zhao to sabotage Zuko. Idk how or why she's gonna change her mind and decide to lend Zuko a hand in the season 2 finale, but that's still in on brand.
Ozai's portrayal here, so far, is the best I've seen yet. He's not just an actual manipulator and strategist; he also actually has balls. Total far cry from the animated, dimwitted, cowardly, fraudulent, scapegoated crybaby we all know and loathe.
I am so sorry that you had to deal with a toxic individual like sonofthesaiyans, I am not shocked that they are both anti Zutara, but also pro Kataang. Their takes on Attack on Titan are really bad too.
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