Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Beefs Up Zuko's Journey With a Good Change
The Prince of the Fire Nation got a big glow-up in the Avatar live-action series that never made its way to the original series.
Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix is a hit, pulling in tens of millions of viewers in its first few days on the streaming service. While the showrunners for the live-action adaptation stayed true to several elements that made the original animated series a hit, they also injected the Netflix series with some new changes not seen in the Nickelodeon show. Perhaps no other group of characters had more changed than the denizens of the Fire Nation, with Prince Zuko himself given one particular scene that expanded on his character.
Prince Zuko has been a fan-favorite character from the original animated series thanks to his conflicted character. While he might be the inheritor to the Fire Nation throne and tasked with capturing the Avatar, Zuko finds himself struggling with the route he should take in his life. There has always been a struggle with this anti-hero as he was torn between his allegiance to the Fire Nation and doing what he believed was right. In the Netflix live-action series, viewers are able to see more events that took place in Zuko's life, with one, in particular, showing the lengths that he took in order to save his fellow countrymen from a grievous fate.
Zuko's Big Live-Action Change
One of the big reasons for Zuko being set to capture the Avatar in Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender was the prince deciding to speak up for a division of the military that was set to be sacrificed to advance the Fire Nation. With one of Ozai's top military minds suggesting that sacrifices would need to be made, Zuko disagreed with the decision, causing the Fire Lord to scar his son and send him out into the world in exile. Luckily, the division that was set to be sacrificed was given a new lease on life as Zuko decided to make them his crew in an effort to save their lives.
i think my favorite change from the avatar live action is that the division that zuko saved ended up becoming his crew. pic.twitter.com/EJ7LJY17P8
— ceo of dallas liu (@zukokins) February 25, 2024
While Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a success for Netflix, a second season for the live-action series has yet to be confirmed. Should the showrunners continue to follow along with the source material, it would mean that season two would give us a deeper dive into the Earth Kingdom while presenting a certain blind Earth bender joining the squad.
What was your favorite new addition to the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Prince Zuko.