In a series as well-crafted and action-packed as Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's safe to
say that some of its most recognizable and remembered moments are also its most
gruesome ones. From deaths, to brutal fights, to emotional devastation, there are quite a
few scenes to choose from when it comes to gruesomeness. But which ones rank supreme?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge, and this is Avatar Moments: Gruesome to Most Gruesome.
It isn’t often we rank a movie or series on its gruesome moments and not just its gruesome
deaths. As such, not every moment on this list will contain a death, although the ones that do
will receive a higher ranking. We’re also only counting moments that mostly happen onscreen.
So no “Death of Kya” scene or “Iroh breaking out of prison”, unfortunately. We’re also only going
to be ranking scenes from the original Avatar for this list, but let us know if you’d like us to
rank the Legend of Korra’s most gruesome moments. Finally, just so we’re all clear, we’re going to
be judging these moments based on the length of the scene, its content, how violent or brutal it
is (physical or otherwise) and finally, the effect that the scene has on characters going forward.
With all that being said, let’s move onto our first moment:
First up, as the least gruesome of gruesome
moments… We have The Moon Spirit’s Death and Rebirth
As many of you already know, the end of Book One brought with it the death of the Moon Spirit, Tui.
With its form now being that of a helpless fish in the physical world, it was easy for the foolish
General Zhao to capture it during an already tense situation. Despite warnings from Aang and Iroh,
Zhao killed Tui with a harsh fire blast, burning it and killing it almost instantly but still
painfully. Shortly afterwards, Princess Yue decides to sacrifice herself and become the new
Moon Spirit, dying in Sokka’s arms in the process. While Yue’s death isn’t quite as brutal as being
burned alive, it’s still emotionally devastating for the characters and the audience, being the
first death that we see in the show. Because Yue’s death is both heroic and relatively peaceful
with it happening quickly and without much pain, we had to rank it last but still felt like
this entire scene deserved a mention, especially after the first half. With this moment being at
the tail end of Book One, it made for a truly memorable - if slightly heartbreaking - finale.
Moving onto The Southern Air Temple
Another early moment, this scene told young audiences everywhere that this show, while
still light hearted and fantastical, was going to go to some dark places. After spending most
of the episode playing and exploring his old home, Aang finally discovers the horrible truth that not
only is he the last of his people, but that his father-figure, Monk Gyatso, likely died a horrible
death at the hands of firebenders. Although it isn’t an onscreen death, seeing the destruction
in that section of the temple as well as Gyatso’s skeleton is enough to paint a pretty devastating
picture. This moment also triggers Aang to go into the Avatar state, and although this isn’t
the first time that’s he done this, it’s still the first time that it was triggered by anger and pain
rather than the heat of battle or the need to defend himself. Like another moment that we’ll
get to shortly, it’s enough to frighten Katara and Sokka, with the latter even saying that if they
can’t calm him down soon, they’d likely be blown right off the side of the temple due
to how strong Aang is in that moment. Thankfully, things calm down fairly quickly, but the feelings
and emotions that come from this scene stick with Aang for not just the rest of the series,
but the rest of his life. There was no sugar coating Gyatso’s death in this moment, and while
there isn’t a ton of action, the emotions and the gruesome implications are still very much there.
Next up, we have Aang VS the Sandbenders
Really, you could make an argument that the entire episode of “The Desert” could count as a gruesome
moment. All four of our heroes are trapped in a seemingly endless desert after losing Appa
and have very little water to spare. The desert is a dangerous place to be, with fantastical
creatures like buzzard-wasps making it even more deadly. There’s also a ton of tension and high
emotions in this episode, mostly coming from Aang in a way that, up until this point, the
audience has never seen before. He starts out simply snapping at his friends,
but by the time the Gaang meets the Sandbenders, Aang’s patience is clearly at its limit.
Despite his previously established pacifism, Aang doesn’t hesitate to start destroying
sand-sailers and threatening the Sandbenders once he realizes that
they were the ones who stole Appa. Again, we see Aang’s Avatar State be triggered by his emotions,
and unlike last time where he was just using his airbending to isolate himself, here
he’s actually using it to attack and intimidate people, making it clear that he’s angry enough to
hurt others both as a means of getting information about his bison and as a means of revenge.
There’s a similar moment to this in the episode aptly titled “The Avatar State”, but because that
moment is somewhat ruined by an exposition dump and isn’t as emotionally charged, we felt we had
to give the conclusion of “The Desert'' a mention instead. Still, because there aren’t any major
injuries or deaths, we had to rank it low while still acknowledging that it’s fairly gruesome
when it comes to the emotions running high during it as well as Aang’s brief show of power.
Next up is Katara Faces Yon Rha
Speaking of people showing off their power, here we have the Waterbending Master Katara
in what is easily her scariest moment. While our rules prevent us from ranking Kya’s
death as one of our most gruesome moments as it happened offscreen,
we have to acknowledge that her murder had a huge affect on both her son
and especially her daughter. After Zuko gives her a chance to get revenge, we see Katara head off on
a mission to finally face the man who killed her mother, Yon Rha. When she does finally find him,
it’s an incredibly tense moment where we can both feel Katara’s rage as well as sense the danger
that Yon Rha is now in. Keep in mind, this is only one scene after Katara bloodbended a person,
something she swore she would never do again. So, yeah, things aren’t looking too good for
Yon Rha in this scene. After she explains who she is and screams at him, telling him that
he “better remember her like his life depends on it” (because it prooooobably does), we see Katara
demonstrate her mastery, stopping the rain instantly before turning it into shards of ice.
Though Katara never crosses that line and decides to spare the man, the implications
are more than clear, and just the thought of a person being stabbed multiple times
by ice shards makes this final confrontation pretty gruesome despite no blood being drawn.
Moving onto: “I’ll Never Firebend Again”
Although Aang is usually pretty wise for a twelve year old, like many kids,
he can be impatient. This was especially true when he thought he found a firebending teacher
through a Fire Nation deserter named Jeong Jeong . Although he was eventually able to convince Jeong
Jeong to teach him, his new teacher’s methods were frustrating to Aang, leading him to disregard them
and try to master firebending on his own. But, we all know the old saying: If you play with fire,
you’re going to get burned. Unfortunately, in this instance, it was Katara getting burned.
The moment is slowed down so that we can truly take in the fear Katara has before she gets hurt,
as well as the shock and helplessness Aang feels when he’s unable to stop the
fire, and the sounds and cries of pain Katara makes afterwards are just as devastating.
Sokka, rightfully, is angry at Aang for this, even tackling him as he’s yelling at him while Katara
is still in tears as she runs off. It’s after this moment that Aang vows he’ll never firebend again,
not caring whether or not learning how to do so is part of his Avatar duties.
Aang actually keeps this vow for a majority of the series, and we see how much the moment
still affects him in episodes like “The Guru” and “The Firebending Masters”, making it all the more
impactful. It’s these elements, plus the fact that it’s a serious injury, that earn it a decent spot,
although Katara being able to heal a few minutes later causes the moment to drop a couple points.
While we’re here, we’ll also briefly mention the moment in “The Western Air Temple” where
Zuko accidentally burns Toph’s feet. Although the moment is much shorter and not nearly
as emotionally devastating for the characters, we still consider it fairly gruesome given how
much a burn hurts in general plus the fact that Toph literally needs her feet to see.
Not quite gruesome enough for an individual ranking, but still worth a mention.
Our next moment is The Bloodbender Battle
Yet another entire episode that could easily qualify as a ‘gruesome moment’. However, if we can
only pick one scene, we of course have to pick the battle between Katara and Hama. After revealing to
her the origins of Bloodbending, Hama decides to demonstrate to Katara how truly powerful
the technique can be by briefly taking over her body. The way she forces Katara to move like a
puppet and contort her body in obviously painful ways is more than enough to send shivers down
anyone’s spine. Thankfully, Katara proves that Hama’s technique is useless against a master like
her. So, we get a full-on waterbending battle, and although it’s brief, it’s just as impressive as
the one earlier in the series between Katara and Pakku. But while Katara is able to overpower her,
the fight becomes a whole new game once Aang and Sokka arrive on the scene. Hama takes control of
them, and forces Katara to fight her best friend and brother before nearly making Sokka stab Aang
with his sword. Of course, this action is stopped in the nick of time thanks to Katara’s quick
mastery of the bloodbending technique and how she’s able to use it against Hama, although it’s
hardly a victory. Between the scene’s emotional intensity, near-death stakes and really just the
idea of bloodbending itself, we had no doubt that it would make it pretty high up our list.
Moving onto Azula Burns Iroh
Yet another moment that involves burning, and it certainly won’t be the last one on this list. This
moment comes at the very end of “The Chase”, an already-tense episode in its own right. Taking
a cue from Mexican standoffs, the conclusion of the episode features a three-way battle between
Aang and the Fire Siblings. But once Sokka, Katara, Toph and Iroh show up, the core cast
puts aside their differences and decides to briefly work together to surround Azula.
Of course, the Fire Nation Princess doesn’t take this lightly,
and when she sees an opportunity to strike, she attacks Iroh with a devastating fire blast.
Iroh screams out in pain and falls to the ground unconscious, much to Zuko’s horror.
It’s his nephew’s reaction that truly adds to the gruesomeness of this scene, as well as just how
devastating Azula’s blast is, clearly being much more powerful and precise, therefore leading to
a much worse burn than the one Katara received from Aang one season earlier. For fans of Iroh,
this is a hard moment to watch, and although he recovers somewhat in the next episode,
it doesn’t undercut how serious (or gruesome) his injuries from this moment were.
As we move our way down to the most gruesome moments, we have The Death of Jet
Yes, Zuko, Jet did in fact die in this scene, although we will acknowledge
that it was fairly unclear. In the episode “Lake Laogai”, Jet is forced to fight Aang,
due to the influence of Long Feng and his brainwashing. While a bit intense,
it doesn’t take long for Jet to snap out of this, thankfully. Unfortunately, he still wasn’t a match
for Long Feng, and after dodging one of Jet’s attacks, Feng retaliated with a devastating final
blow. Katara attempted to heal him, but determined that his injuries were too much for her to heal.
As such, Jet ended up dying in the catacombs of Lake Laogai. So, why are we ranking such a
tragic character death outside of our top five and not number one? Well, for starters, we have
to look at the type of blow Jet received. Although getting your bones cracked and
dealing with internal bleeding is certainly pretty gruesome in its own right, it’s not
nearly as bloody or violent as say getting stabbed with ice or being burnt. We also feel
that this moment is simply more bittersweet than gruesome. Although Jet does die a slow,
painful and tragic death, he’s able to say his goodbyes while his friends stay by his side
until the very end. What’s more, it was his help that led to the Gaang reuniting with Appa,
making him a redeemed hero in the eyes of people who thought they couldn’t trust
him. As such, while we can still acknowledge that this scene does have a gruesome element to it
in that a 16 year old boy dies, we unfortunately can’t call it the most gruesome. Sorry, Jet.
Moving Onto Avatar Aang Rises
Okay, okay, we know this fight is incredible, and if this were a list of awesome fight scenes,
it would no doubt be at number one. But, because we’re ranking these moments on their gruesomeness,
we had to drop it a few spots. Let us explain. Being the longest ‘moment’ in this list,
there are certainly plenty of gruesome bits throughout it. We see Aang desperately trying
to dodge attack after attack, eventually being forced to hide in a shield made of earth as he
tries to figure out his next move, which Ozai easily obliterates with a fire blast. While
this does lead to Aang unlocking his Avatar State, you can’t deny that this was a pretty painful way
of doing it, in that he’s stabbed directly in the wound he received after being struck
by lightning. Afterwards, the fight is pretty much a blowout, with Aang demonstrating his true
power of the Avatar in how he easily outmatches Ozai in every attempt at countering, ending with
Aang nearly killing the Firelord once and for all with an all-four-elements attack - something
that, while would have been fast, also would have been incredibly painful. However, Aang decides
to be merciful and take Ozai’s bending away instead, and this is ultimately what drops this
moment down a few notches. Now, we aren’t saying that a battle of will that’s represented by bright
orange and blue lights isn’t cool, it definitely is… iiiiiit’s just not exactly ‘gruesome’. We know
we wouldn’t be talking about Legend of Korra in this list but we still have to say that compared
to the scenes where Amon is taking away someone’s bending, this moment of Aang doing it is more
fantastical spectacle than outright gruesomeness. Though Ozai is exhausted afterwards, he’s
not exactly emotionally devastated by the loss of his bending or the fact that he lost the fight
(unlike another certain member of the Fire Nation family who we’ll be getting to shortly). For those
reasons, we had to bump this moment down. But hey, it’s still a pretty amazing fight.
Next is The Death of Avatar Roku
Here we have another character death moment, albeit through a flashback. Still, it’s much
longer and much more gruesome than Jet or Yue’s deaths, so we felt it’d be a disservice not to
mention it. In the episode “The Avatar and the Firelord”, both Aang and Zuko are told the story
of Firelord Sozin and Avatar Roku. Towards the end of the story, we learn Roku’s ultimate fate. When
the volcano he and his family are living on begins to erupt, Roku does all he can to save his home.
For a time, it nearly looks like he can actually beat back nature, and even when he starts to fail,
the return of his former friend makes it seem like this story might just have a happy ending.
Unfortunately, when Roku gets caught up in a blast of poisonous volcanic ash,
instead of trying to save him, Sozin figures “hey, he’s already half-dead.
Might as well help him along so that I can finally enact my plans”. Sozin abandons Roku,
leaving him to suffocate and perish on the side of the volcano. The gruesomeness of
this moment truly is twofold. For one, death by poisonous ash and suffocation is pretty awful.
While Roku likely died instantly once he and his dragon, Fang, were covered by the ash,
there was still a lot of pain he had to go through before that point. Adding in the element
of betrayal from someone Roku thought was his best friend finally seeing the light, and it just makes
the moment all the more devastating. There’s still one more death scene that tops it, however.
Next up, we have The Death of Combustion Man Now THIS is what we call a truly memorable
character death! Of the small handful of characters who have died on screen in the original
Avatar series, this one is certainly the most graphic. After Combustion Man manages to track
down Team Avatar and nearly blasts them and the Western Air Temple off the cliffside with his
insanely powerful attacks. It’s a tense moment as the Gaang tries to figure out how to counter
their would-be assassin without getting blown up while Zuko desperately tries to get Combustion Man
to stop, nearly getting hurt in the process. In the end, all it takes is a direct hit by Sokka’s
boomerang to block his chi, leaving him briefly disoriented and, more importantly, unable to use
his attack. When Combustion Man tries again, his blocked chi instead causes the very air around him
to explode violently. And just like that, it’s bye bye Sparky Sparky Boom Man. What makes this
scene particularly gruesome is how much it makes it clear that Combustion Man was in fact blown
to bits, with the only part left of him that’s left intact being his metal arm. In a show that’s
full of fantastical violence, this real-world death-by-explosion is all the more devastating, as
well as pretty darn memorable. However, it’s the length of this scene and the lack of impact with
the rest of the characters, given that they aren’t too disturbed or upset by it, that truly holds it
back from being the most gruesome in comparison to our Top 3.
In third place, with the Bronze Medal of Gruesome, we have: Azula VS Zuko and Katara
While the main event was always going to be Aang VS Ozai, there were just as many people
interested in the final showdown between the Royal Fire Nation Siblings, Zuko and Azula.
In the ultimate Agni Kai, we saw these two clash against each other using the full power granted
to them by Sozin’s Comet. While there’s no burning or blood, the power in each of these
fire blasts is still felt, as are the emotions of these characters. We even start to see the
surrounding area begin to burn because of all the fire being thrown. Eventually, Zuko taunts Azula
into shooting lightning at him, knowing that he can now redirect it. But Azula never plays fair,
and by forcing Zuko to choose between letting Katara be hit or taking the blow himself,
the Fire Prince is left seriously injured by this attack. Though this isn’t the only
moment we have on this list focusing on lightning, it’s still just as gruesome the second time
around. Even if Zuko isn’t knocked unconscious by the attack, he’s still clearly in pain for several
minutes as Katara tries to defeat Azula once and for all. Through some cunning strategy and a
technique that only a waterbending master can pull off, Katara restrains Azula and manages to heal
Zuko. This leads to the second highlight of the fight, and what we argue could be even
more gruesome than the actual lightning. Defeated and chained, we see Azula begin to scream and sob,
knowing that she’s lost but being unable to accept her failure, further adding
to her fall into insanity. As painful as it was seeing Zuko be shot by lightning,
it’s just as painful (as well as heartbreaking) seeing Azula fall to such a tragic fate.
Being gruesome both physically and emotionally, it more than earns a spot in the Top 3.
For our Silver Medal runner-up, we’ve selected: The Scarring of Prince Zuko
We certainly couldn’t forget this moment, and although it is partially
off-screen, we still felt that it more than counts and does enough to be one of the most
gruesome moments in Avatar. In “The Storm”, we get the origins of Prince Zuko’s scar. When he
was only 13, Zuko spoke out of turn at one of his father’s meetings,
and because this was seen as an act of disrespect, Zuko was forced into an agni kai with Ozai. Not
wanting to fight his own father, Zuko surrendered - which was seen as even more of a dishonor.
We all know the painful story from here... While Zuko’s screams of pain as he receives
the burn does indeed do most of the leg work for this moment, it’s not the only gruesome
element. From Zuko’s panic and fear when he realizes who he’s fighting, to the cruelness
his father shows before delivering the burn, to even Zuko’s age and the fact that he’s in tears
when he receives the burn, no doubt making it worse given how salty tears can be. Though it’s
one of the briefest scenes in the show and not nearly as graphic as it could have been - this
is still a kid show, after all - the execution and presentation of the moment as well as its buildup
does more than enough to make it effective, as well as the fact that it (obviously) affects
Zuko throughout the rest of the series. Really, just imagining it is enough to make you grimace,
but the fact that we actually hear Zuko’s screams pushes it nearly all the way to the top.
We finally come to our Most Gruesome Avatar moment: Azula’s Final Strike
So, what can beat out a teenager getting burned? How about a preteen getting
electrocuted? In the ultimate season finale cliffhanger, this moment brought shock (no pun
intended) and devastation to the audience as we watched Aang go from a moment of triumph to being
on Death’s door. Simply put, this moment catches EVERYONE off guard when they first watch it,
as Azula’s surprise attack interrupts what feels like a moment of victory. Although it’s
brief, we actually see Aang briefly twitch and convulse from the attack before falling
unconscious. If that’s not gruesome, we don’t know what is. Additionally,
this attack is devastating enough that Aang nearly dies from it, and while there’s again no blood,
the kid’s clearly shown to be in pretty bad shape regardless. Although Katara is able to save him
just in time, Aang still ends up slipping into a coma that lasts months, and this failure continues
to affect him both physically, in that he can no longer access the Avatar state and is weaker
for a short time, as well as emotionally and mentally. With how significant this moment is,
as well as the (albeit brief) graphic nature of it being shown right on screen, we felt that this
moment more than deserved to be called the Most Gruesome Moment of Avatar the Last Airbender.
But what do you think? Were there any moments that we missed? Let us
know in the comments if you agree with our ranking, and tell us which series you’d like
to see next. Be sure to hit that notification bell so you don’t miss new episodes of Good-to-Evil
featuring your favorite cartoons and videogames; but most importantly: stay wicked!