Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 has dropped, and those who have finished streaming all seven episodes must be sitting with their hearts sunk into deep despair right now. The season finale of the series delivered a brutal blow, one that left the fate of an important character ambiguous for the upcoming season. This ending came as a stark difference from the conclusion of the first season, where, at the end, everything fell into place.

The season starts with a quest to find Aang’s next teacher, who would help him master earthbending after he mastered waterbending with the help of Katara. Fortunately, while helping a group of refugees to the passage of Ba Sing Se, the team crosses paths with Toph Beifong, a gifted earthbending prodigy. With her on their side, they reach Ba Sing Se, and Aang masters earthbending.

But things do not go as planned, and Azula, who was hot on their tails since the beginning of the season, catches up to them and causes a major upset for the fans of the show.

The last episode of season 2, titled Something Broken, saw Aang’s friend locked up in a prison of the Earth Kingdom, and the Avatar sneaking in to rescue them with an unlikely ally, General Iroh, who has come to save Zuko, who is also locked in there. Meanwhile, Azula has taken control of the state without any military conflict and is headed to the prison to finish her real mission - to retrieve Zuko and bring him back home.

After rescuing everyone, Aang and Katara finally come face to face with Azula once again, and they were stunned to see Zuko by her side. The former prince of the Fire Nation was on a path of reformation with everything he got to know about his father, the Fire Lord Ozai, in the first season. His uncle, Iroh, acts as his moral compass the entire season, and he is struggling with demons of his own. Last time, when he was in Ba Sing Se, he caused carnage in hopes of bringing the walls of the kingdom down, but he left empty-handed and with a dead son.

Anyhow, Aang and Katara fight the combined forces of the Fire siblings and are pushed back when prison guards of the Earth Kingdom arrive to outnumber them. Seeing no other choice, Aang enters the Avatar State and overwhelms both of them single-handedly. He was about to finish Azula, but he stopped and was about to exit the Avatar State when Azula struck Aang in the chest with a lightning bolt, delivering a fatal wound.

Aang falls to the ground lifeless, with Katara holding him in her arms, trying to heal him, but Azula is moving closer to finish the job when Iroh comes in the way and gives Katara an opening to escape with Aang. Iroh is captured by the Earth prison guards, and Zuko does not seem to care. The next scene shows the gang on Appa flying their way out of the city, worried over Aang’s survival.

Katara uses her water from the Spirit Oasis, which she got as a thank-you gesture from the North for saving it from a fierce Fire Nation attack last season. Even after Katara uses the water, Aang remained unresponsive, and the season ended there, leaving the viewers with a devastating cliffhanger.

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The heartbreaking conclusion now begs the question - is the cycle of reincarnation broken now?

Early in the season, Aang reveals his fear of losing control in the Avatar State after what happened in the finale of season 1. He is still not over the fact that he let the vengeful Ocean Spirit take control, and in the process of fending off an attack from the Fire Nation, he almost destroyed the North Water Kingdom.

However, later on, in the sixth episode, his fears got a solid base for worry when his predecessor, Avatar Yangchen, informs him about the dire consequences of dying in the Avatar State. If Aang dies while in the Avatar State, the cycle of reincarnation of Avatars will be severed forever. This means there will be no Avatar from the point forward, which will ultimately result in an instability in power among the four nations.

Aang was terrified by this possibility and resolved never to use it, but Yangchen cautioned him that he would have to use it when the time comes, and to put his mind at ease, she also informed him that as he masters all the elements, his control over the Avatar State gets stronger and stronger. Aang is hopeful about this, as he has already mastered air, water, and earth, so now, his control over the Avatar State would be far more than it was at the end of season 1.

This was true only to some extent, though, as he did die in the Avatar State by the end, as foreshadowed. And we also saw Aang’s connection to the previous Avatars being lost as he fell after being struck by Azula. But the bigger question is whether the cycle can be restored if Aang comes back to life in season 3. This question can only be answered in season 3, and till then, fans will be in the dark regarding the fate of the Avatar and his reincarnations.

As much as Aang’s fate has been troubling viewers right now, Zuko’s return to his old ways has been equally aggravating for them.

When the Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 started, Zuko was shown to be a bit troubled by his own identity and his place in the world. And in that frustration, he blames his uncle Iroh for everything and leaves him. However, as he was on his way to capture the Avatar once again, he was constantly met with choices when he had to choose to either do something good or just walk away. Most of the time, he chose to do something good, and from there, his character arc took a positive turn.

This journey also helped him to confront his past, something he has been suppressing inside of him for years. His memories of his mother and what she taught him guided him while making some of the hard choices throughout the season. In the finale, when he had a heart-to-heart with Katara, sharing with her how his situation is similar to hers, with his mother taken away from him when he was young, and then living with his monster of a father, who did not want a son but a ruthless killing machine, made us believe that he has transformed and that he is now on the good side.

But that did not last long, as when fighting Azula, he was reminded by her of how their mother wanted them to be together forever. Azula spares her brother’s life and implores him to come home, and that she will not force him to do so. This gesture from his sister seems to be the motivating factor for Zuko to switch sides once again, teaming up with Azula to capture the Avatar.

While it can be argued that Zuko only embarked on this redemption path as he saw no other option but to accept what was in front of him and start over, still to throw away all the positive changes and take up the shot at his former life instantly makes little sense. However, Zuko's redemption arc is still ongoing, which is the main reason he chose to join Azula.

Although Zuko has made significant progress in improving himself, he still has room for improvement. He cherishes his dignity and former lifestyle more than being a decent person, as evidenced by his willingness to accept Azula's offer. Zuko must now return to his former life in order to discover that it would not satisfy him and that he has evolved into a better person than he once believed.

Apart from Zuko, there was another person who got a significant character development, and that too in a shorter period of time.

The newly added character of Toph Beifong also had an unexpected development arc in the Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 finale. In the last episode, Lady Beifong, Toph's mother, met with her estranged daughter in Ba Sing Se. But after what appeared to be a heartfelt conversation between mother and daughter, Lady Beifong drugged Toph's tea, rendering her asleep. Toph was stuck in a metal box on her way home when she woke up.

While in the box, she asked some tough questions to her mother, and the answers to them made her realize that her family, especially her mother, never understood her, but her friends did, and she needed to make things right with them as they were her real family. Fortunately, Toph was able to bend the metal to get out of the box and reunite with the rest of Team Avatar. Shortly after, she proclaimed that Toph was the first Earthbender to ever bend metal.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 2, had a darker and emotionally breaking finale as compared to season 1. With Aang’s life hanging in the balance, Zuko turned to the enemy's side again, and Ba Sing Se falling into the hands of Azula, the season sets up for a more intense and high-stakes season 3. There is also the matter of Sozin’s Comet that carries the threat of super-charging every firebender for a night looming on the horizon. A lot is about to happen in the upcoming season, and viewers are still not sure about the return of the Avatar.

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Do you think the Water of the Spirit Oasis will be able to bring Aang back to life? Share your thoughts in the comments.