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The story of Avatar: The Last Airbender is popular not only because of its stylish Asian-inspired setting and its exciting fantasy combat system, but mainly its compelling and surprisingly deep characters – heroes and villains alike. Many of the best Avatar characters are quite dynamic.
Some characters, such as Fire Lord Ozai, didn’t change that much, but others certainly did. These characters learned vital life lessons, changed their views on the world and themselves, gained new powers, and much more. By the story’s end, some Avatar characters matured, and that helped pave the way for future adventures in the Dark Horse comics. Who changed the most, in no particular order, and how?
10 Katara Learned Some Tough Lessons About Bending & Revenge
Katara is the primary Waterbender of Team Avatar. She also acts like the group’s mother. Katara is known for her headstrong and stubborn ways, much like an Earthbender, and she can be ferocious like a Firebender. But she still has a lot to learn.
Katara did a lot of growing up in the show, including learning to accept characters like Toph and Zuko for who they are. Katara also learned the dangers of exploitative bending, such as bloodbending. She learned that revenge really is a double-edged sword.
9 Mai Embraced Her True Feelings
At first, Mai was an apathetic grouch, and she seemed annoyed by absolutely everything and everyone around her. Later, she confessed that this was due to her stern upbringing, where her parents had strict expectations for her. Early on, Mai learned to suppress her true feelings and opinions.
That changed during the course of Avtar. Mai dissolved her obedient facade and learned to assert herself. This helped her express her true feelings for Zuko, and she also stood up to Azula for Zuko’s sake. She also made her relationship with Zuko healthier, and demanded more of both herself and her boyfriend.
8 Ty Lee Found Her True Calling
Ty Lee didn’t change as much as her friends, but she did have a minor character arc of her own, especially during the events of Book Three: Fire. Ty Lee started the story as a carefree and enthusiastic acrobat in a traveling circus, until she agreed to fight for Azula to capture the Avatar.
Ty Lee cooperated with Azula for a time out of fear, but later on, she learned to overcome this fear, and turned on Azula at the Boiling Rock prison complex. Ty Lee evidently vowed to never let people use her again, and she has stuck to that mindset ever since. She even voluntarily joined the Kyoshi Warriors, and declared them her good friends.
7 Pakku Changed His Worldview & Got Married
Some of Avatar‘s characters helped prove that no one is too old to change their ways and embrace new ideas. Pakku is the top Waterbender of the Northern Water Tribe, and for decades, he embraced his tribe’s regressive views on women and girls, until he met and fought Katara.
Pakku accepted Katara as his new student, and he learned to respect her talent and heroic ways. Pakku was inspired to marry his childhood sweetheart Kanna. He later found the resolve to join his White Lotus allies and help end the Hundred-Year War once and for all.
6 Sokka Greatly Expanded His Horizons
Katara’s brother Sokka is naturally cautious and protective. Early in the show, he was close-minded and that made him tough to like. Traveling the world with the Gaang quickly changed Sokka’s attitude for the better, and everyone appreciated it.
Sokka shed his backwards views on girls very early. After that, he learned to take risks, put his life in the hands of others, and not be too self-reliant. He also began to believe in destiny and fate, lofty concepts he had once rejected as irrelevant nonsense. In a sense, he became a believer.
5 Suki Found Love & Experienced New Things
Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors personally taught Sokka that girls can be exemplary fighters. Despite that, her character arc is remarkably similar to Sokka’s. Just like Sokka, Suki was a tough and pragmatic defender of her people, and she had a narrow worldview, having never left Kyoshi Island before.
Suki later began traveling the world, and met up with Team Avatar outside the city of Ba Sing Se. She joined Team Avatar in Book Three – seeing and experiencing many new things. She also learned to accept her former enemy Ty Lee as an ally.
4 Iroh Turned On His Brother & Slimmed Down
For the most part, uncle Iroh helped change the people around him, but he did experience some changes of his own. In years past, he lost his son Lu Ten during the siege of Ba Sing Se. Afterwards, Iroh completely changed his attitude about war, violence, and the Fire Nation’s place in the world.
Later on, Iroh turned on the Fire Nation and became one of Azula’s enemies, and he helped Zuko complete his own transformation as well. Iroh was captured, but got fit in prison and broke out. He then resumed working at his tea shop in Ba Sing Se. This warrior has fought his last battle, and is now a lover of peace.
3 Toph Beifong Came To Appreciate Her Parents & Friends
Toph Beifong was a total rebel at first, and she hated how her parents kept her trapped in a suffocating household. She took her chance to run off with Aang to see the world, and was rather stubborn and prickly at first. She realized that her actions and words have a serious impact on others.
Toph quickly grew up when she realized that her actions hurt her concerned parents, and she shouldn’t antagonize Katara so much. Toph became more empathetic after that, and finally opened up to Sokka and the others. She also learned to bend metal, which meant she could open her own bending school.
2 Aang Learned The Elements & Met Some Spirits
Avatar Aang never stopped being the compassionate and funny kid he was in Book One: Water, but he did grow up during the course of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Aang began to take himself and his actions seriously as the reality of his Avatar duties, and the stakes involved really sank in.
Aang also transformed his fighting style, learning to bend water, earth, and fire, and even people’s mental energy. He became wiser, tougher, and more practical as the journey went on, going from a carefree youngster to a true hero by the time he finally faced his destiny, Fire Lord Ozai.
1 Prince Zuko’s Personal Transformation Is Legendary
Prince Zuko underwent the biggest changes in the course of the story, though in a sense, he was really just returning to his childhood self. In his boyhood, Zuko was compassionate to a fault, something his father and sister scorned him for. After Zuko received his burn scar, he became bitter and self-absorbed.
Zuko thought his destiny was to capture the Avatar and regain his father’s favor, but he was wrong. Zuko learned, slowly and painfully, to shed this angry exterior and return to his kinder self. He realized his true destiny to help Aang, and confronted his father at long last to free himself from the prison that is his family. Now he is a kind and benevolent Fire Lord who fights only for others.
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