The second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender is also subtitled Book Two: Earth. It is 20 episodes long and takes place in a world where certain people have the ability to bend (i.e. manipulate) one of the four classical elements: air, water, earth and fire. The world is also split up into four nations based on the elements, with the Fire Nation at world against the world for the last century, holding superior fire power and wanting to conquer all the Nations. It is up to the legendary Avatar, who is able to bend all four elements, to help restore peace.
The season begins with Aang, Katara and Sokka leave the Water Nation and travelling to the Earth Nation in order to learn about earth bending. They get there with no worries but now that exploits of Aang and the power he possesses while in his “avatar state” has spread, there is pressure for him to repeal the Fire Nation. The first half of the season focuses on Aang beginning to learn earth bending, while still continuing on his water bending in the background. As a result, the cast grows with a new team member, as well as a new villain. The integration of the new team member, Toph, takes a while to work through the kinks. Thus, there seems to be a lot more arguments among the group which can be painful to watch. However, the team does noticeably grow after each one.
So while Toph may have been annoying when she first joined Aang, she has easily grown into an integral part of the team. It gets to the point where you’ll miss her if she disappears for a short scene or two. The team dynamic has become easygoing between the members and you can tell that they have grown to trust each other implicitly.
Zuko, the exiled Fire Nation prince, on the other hand, is on the run. He still hasn’t given up on capturing the Avatar but his loss at the last season’s finale has set him back. However, even from the very first episode, you can tell that he is going to get some heavy character development as he travels through the Earth Nation and sees the perspectives of normal people caught in the war. His uncle, his travelling companion, is also a wealth of knowledge and wisdom who tries to reach the good that is inside of Zuko.
Due to the focus on the season’s new villain, Azula, Zuko does feel like he is sidelined a bit more this season. While he still gets a lot of scenes, they are slower and less pointed compared to his appearances in the first season. That said, his character development is strong. In keeping with the trend of the overall improved quality of the season, all the other characters feel much more complex and less of a one-dimensional archetype.
The improvements to the show don’t stop there. There is now more continuity between episodes with better pacing and storytelling. There is a huge injection of humor that works tremendously well. Characters will constantly out with one-liners that are on point, funny and clever. These are often excellently placed to relieve a tense situation or make the scene more exciting. There is continual building of the lore of the world, from how the group is investigating for hints to defeat the Fire Nation, to mythical legends that turn out to be true.
The second half of the season definitely has some of the best episodes the show has thus far. It balances the various aspects well, such as the awesome combat scenes having Aang showcasing moves with the three airbending styles that he has now learnt. Bending is now shown more creativity including combination attacks of different styles between the characters. Aang shows off some more Avatar powers and he is powerful. On the flip side, Zuko and his uncle aren’t bad either. They are able to take on five powerful Fire Nation attackers at once without breaking much of a sweat while on the run. There is a constant reminder of how far the Fire Nation has come in conquering the Earth Nation. They are pressing in from all sides and Aang constantly encounters them. The season ends with a good ending that leaves the state of affairs hanging. While the season finale was somewhat disappointing when looking at Zuko’s actions considering his development over the course of the season, the resulting situation felt natural and escalated the stakes.
Overall, the strong ending of the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender is further proof that it has improved upon the first season in very way. It has better storytelling where the episodes aren’t as self-contained or disjointed, inventive use of bending, and great humor that leverages off the camaraderie of the characters.
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