Avatar: The Last Airbender · Season 1 · Episode 8 · 22 February 2024
S1E8 Legends
THE MOMENT Aang in the Avatar State above the North Pole - the sequence that briefly makes the show feel like it has earned its source material.
The season finale delivers its action setpieces and emotional resolutions with reasonable craft. Aang's Avatar State and the Northern Water Tribe's defence arrive with appropriate scale. What the show cannot deliver is the original's emotional depth; what it can deliver, it does.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
'Legends' closes Netflix's Avatar Season 1 with the action setpieces and emotional resolutions the source material requires: Aang's Avatar State, the Northern Water Tribe's defence, the Fire Nation's repulsion. What the finale demonstrates is the range of the show's achievement: it can deliver spectacle with reasonable craft (the Avatar State sequence is visually striking), and it cannot deliver the emotional depth of the animated original at any point in the season. The Verge's review correctly identified this divide - spectacle accessible, heart elusive - as the live-action version's defining characteristic. By the finale's score of 7.2, the show has earned its viewing recommendation for Avatar fans with adjusted expectations and its scepticism from those who consider the animated series' warmth non-negotiable.