Avatar: The Last Airbender Had The Perfect Ending, But I’m Happy That We're Getting More

Avatar: The Last Airbender spans three seasons, each named after one of the elements that Avatar Aang still has to master at the beginning of the show. Creators and producers Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko clearly had a plan in mind when creating the show, and Avatar: The Last Airbender's 20-plus episode seasons gave them the perfect amount of time to tell the story they wanted to tell. The Avatar: The Last Airbender series finale is clearly meant to be the ending.

Throughout the show, Aang and his friends travel all over the world, meeting multiple kings, going to a library owned by a spirit, and even taking the time to watch a theater propaganda piece retelling their lives. If the series were any shorter, Avatar: The Last Airbender could have missed out on its best side stories or some of the character moments that are part of what makes it so special, and if it were any longer, it might have missed out on fitting the structure they built as perfectly as it did.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Makes A Promise About The End Of The Show In Season 1

We Know From The Beginning That Aang Is Going To Have To Battle Fire Lord Ozai

As early as season 1, the audience knows something about how to expect Avatar: The Last Airbender to end. The conflict of the Fire Nation taking over the world is set up from the beginning, and it's only a few episodes later that Avatar Roku explains to Aang the deadline created by the firebending boost of Sozin's Comet.

We don't know too much about the comet at this point in the show, as it's not until much later that Aang actually learns how Fire Lord Ozai is planning to utilize it. However, Roku's discussion with Aang is still a call to action for Aang and his friends and a promise that the audience should expect to see Aang stop the Fire Nation by that deadline.

Aang's reaction is a reminder that he and his friends are just kids, and the pressure of the comet seems even greater now that the promise delivered at the beginning of the show is coming to pass.

Season 3 makes good on that promise, but the deadline is given additional weight through Aang's reluctance to meet it. He doesn't take the comet as seriously as he should until he’s told Ozai's plans. Aang's reaction is a reminder that he and his friends are just kids, and the pressure of the comet seems even greater now that the promise delivered at the beginning of the show is coming to pass. Aang has to accept his role very suddenly, leading to a crisis over the intersection of his identities and Aang's eventual decision not to kill Fire Lord Ozai.

Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Premise Is Structured Around The Show Being 3 Seasons

The Names Of The Seasons Correspond With Their Focus

Avatar: The Last Airbender establishes a pattern with its seasons that the rest of the franchise follows to this day, and that might not have happened if the show didn't end where it did. Each of the seasons, or "books," being named after the element that Aang learns during that season establishes a pattern that could have been broken if they decided to keep going after the defeat of the Fire Lord. The names of the books show that the creators had confidence in the story that would be told over the course of the series.

While technically the show could have completed the cycle with an Avatar: The Last Airbender season 4 named after the element of air, it might have been difficult to tell a story focused on that element within only one season. Aang's roles as the Avatar and as the last airbender carry a great deal of significance, and moving onto new events centered around how he grows with those elements of his identity after the defeat of the Fire Lord could have been hard to wrap up and do justice to in only one season.

20 Years Later, We're Getting More Original Avatar: The Last Airbender Content Than Ever

It's Finally Time To Return To Aang And His Friends, But We'll Meet Some New Faces As Well

With the creation of Avatar Studios in 2021 and the live-action Netflix remake's first season released in 2024, the 2020s have kick-started a new era of Avatar: The Last Airbender content. There are even more new Avatar: The Last Airbender shows and movies to come. The remake has been renewed for two more seasons to round out the story, and Avatar: The Last Airbender's original series is finally getting a follow-up in 2026.

The film, called Aang: The Last Airbender, will follow the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender as young adults, taking place years after the events of the original show. Avatar Studios has also promised at least two other movies, though information on those has not been released yet.

In addition, a new Avatar: The Last Airbender show called Avatar: Seven Havenshas been announced about the Avatar after Aang's successor Korra. The sequel series, made by the same creators as the original Avatar: The Last Airbender, will take place generations after the events that Aang and his friends have lived through. Though set to take place in the distant future, Avatar: Seven Havens will expand the world further, showing how far into the future the original characters' impact lasts.