Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ sneakily references episodes it cut from the original

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender has three main tactics when it comes to adapting episodes from the original series.

For some, like “The Warriors of Kyoshi” or “The Siege of the North,” Avatar: The Last Airbender opts for a more straightforward recreation, albeit with a few tweaks. Others, like “Jet,” “The King of Omashu,” and “The Northern Air Temple,” get smashed together into a large amalgam of plots. Then there are the leftovers: Those that don’t get adapted at all.

Given the new structure of the live-action show — eight hour-long episodes vs 20 22-minute-long episodes — it makes sense that some of Aang’s (Gordon Cormier) original adventures didn’t make the cut. You’ll still find bits and pieces of “leftover” episodes scattered throughout the show, though.

For example, even though we don’t get the actual storm of “The Storm,” we still learn Aang (Gordon Cormier) and Zuko’s (Dallas Liu) key backstories that were first revealed in that episode. And even though we don’t get the full storyline of “Bato of the Water Tribe,” we do see a quick glimpse of Bato and the traditional ice-dodging trials Sokka underwent in the original series. But Avatar: The Last Airbender has an even sneakier way of paying tribute to some of its completely cut episodes.

In the show’s fifth installment, “Spirited Away,” Fire Nation Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) and his uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) visit an Earth Kingdom village in search of the Avatar. While they try to keep their mission a secret, they quickly learn that the villagers are aware of the Avatar’s return. How did they hear about it? From a collection of people passing through town, including some pirates and a canyon guide. Both are references to early Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes.

Dallas Liu and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee in “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

The pirates are drawn from Book 1, episode 9, “The Waterbending Scroll.” Katara (Kiawentiio) steals the scroll from them in order to practice her bending forms, but the pirates soon track them down. The canyon guide is a character from Book 1, episode 11, “The Great Divide.” He helps Aang, Katara, and Sokka (Ian Ousley) cross the massive canyon known as the Great Divide with two feuding families. Along the way, they fend off some gnarly canyon crawlers, which also get a quick background mention in “Spirited Away.” It’s one of the Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s most unpopular episodes — as of writing this, it is the lowest-rated episode on IMDb.

The barrage of Easter eggs concludes with a reference to “how [Aang, Katara, and Sokka] stopped the volcano from erupting,” a scene from Book 1, episode 14, “The Fortuneteller.” In that episode, Aang, Katara, and Sokka encounter a town that relies on the predictions of a fortuneteller. But when she fails to show any sign of knowing a nearby volcano is about to erupt, our heroes take matters into their own hands and save the day.

These quick hints at “The Waterbending Scroll,” “The Great Divide,” and “The Fortuneteller” suggest that the events of these episodes are happening canonically in the live-action version — we just aren’t seeing them. But there’s no word yet on two other Book 1 episodes whose main storylines got completely chopped: “Imprisoned,” where Katara leads an earthbender prison break; and “The Deserter,” a particularly mature outing where Aang learns the dangers of firebending. Perhaps the live-action version wasn’t quite ready for Avatar meets Apocalypse Now.

Still, with its twist on Book 2’s “The Cave of Two Lovers” and its introduction of library spirit Wan Shi Tong, Avatar: The Last Airbender has proven it’s open to moving pieces of story to different seasons. Perhaps we’ll get versions of “The Deserter” or “Imprisoned” further down the road — second and third seasons pending, of course.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix.