Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best animated shows to appear on television. It is surprisingly good. When I first saw it, I did not realize how well-developed it would be. The pilot was all right, but the more I saw of it, the more it became the number one show I binge-watched. I went out of my way to see every new episode. I had never given any other cartoon that much attention. And when the show finished (simultaneously the most exhilarating and the most depressing day of my life), I eagerly waited for the DVD collection.

I don't mean to gush (oh, I am so totally going to gush), but the show is that phenomenal. It's got the perfect amount of humor, and the jokes are never heavy-handed. As the show progresses and you grow to deeply care about the characters, their moments of tragedy truly affect you. Combined together, the show's comedic and poignant moments blend together perfectly. If you haven't seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, you are missing out. I don't recommend shows very often, but Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of them. Don't get put off because it is an animated show. Its quality is top-notch, and the first episodes speak for themselves.

As with nearly any show out there though, mistakes have been made. Animation errors, plot holes, and inconsistencies plague almost every television show, and The Last Airbender is no exception. While I'm writing this list about those mistakes, don't think for an instant that I think these mistakes are deal-breakers. If anything, these mistakes are pretty hard to notice, and only a true fan who has watched every single episode more than once would probably catch them. Are you a true fan? Or are you ready to become one? Then read on, and don't judge this show by its mistakes.

25 The Toothy Master

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Monk Gyatso was Aang's airbending master. We only get to meet him in the flashbacks that Aang experiences, but every time we see him, it sends a little pang to our hearts. He was kindly and wise, everything you would want in a teacher. When the other airbending masters were getting on Aang's case, saying that he needed to study more in order to be a proper Avatar, Gyatso argued in favor of having Aang play and be a kid for a while. Gyatso could always make Aang laugh with his gentle humor. One thing I noticed was that whenever Gyatso laughed, he had quite a few teeth missing from his gums. However, when we get a look at Gyatso's skeleton when Aang returns to the Southern Air Temple after a hundred years frozen in ice, all of Gyatso's teeth are accounted for.

24 Avatar Order

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Throughout the series, and even in the subsequent show The Legend of Korra, the order of the past lives of the Avatars is shown to us multiple times. The cycle of the Avatars works through each of the elements, going from water to earth to fire to air. Avatar Roku, the Avatar before Aang, speaks to Aang consistently, giving the young airbender advice on his problems. And before Roku, there was Avatar Kyoshi. In one of the first few episodes though, when Katara, Aang, and Sokka visit the Southern Air Temple, Kyoshi's place as the Avatar before Roku had not been cemented. In the Hall of Past Avatars, next to Roku's statue, an unknown earthbender male's statue had been built instead of Kyoshi. I'm guessing that the show's creators hadn't settled on the order of the Avatars yet.

23 Is That An Invitation?

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One of the things I like about The Last Airbender is that the characters who don't have any bending are still compelling and solid fighters. Sokka may have started out as the comedic relief, but he grew to be a capable opponent to any enemy he faced. He really made that transition when he learned proper sword-fighting from a master named Piandao. At the end of Sokka's training, Piandao helped Sokka forge his own sword, and he also gave him a Pai Sho tile. This particular Pai Sho tile was the White Lotus. The White Lotus was a symbol for the Order of the White Lotus, a secret society that stands for philosophy, beauty, and truth. By giving Sokka the tile, was Piandao inviting Sokka into the Order?! Was it an initiation? We never find out what this action means.

22 Nonsensical Science

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The way things work in our world is not how things work in The Last Airbender. That goes without saying, seeing as how in Aang's world, people can bend the elements using fancy hand and body movements. But some things should be explained a bit more. In The Last Airbender, Aang's primary mission is to stop Fire Lord Ozai before the arrival of Sozin's Comet. The comet enhances firebenders' abilities, making them a gazillion times stronger. Their strength increasing is a problem because most of the Fire Nation are obsessed with taking over the other nations (jerks). Comets in our world are mainly made of water though. So... how would a ball of ice and dust benefit firebenders? Maybe comets are made of something different in The Last Airbender. 

21 The Walking Bound

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So this mistake happened in the film, but it was quite the doozy, so I thought I would include it in my list. When Aang was captured by Zhao in the live-action film, he was chained by his wrists and by his ankles so that he couldn't airbend. The Blue Spirit, also known as Prince Zuko, sneaks into the place where Aang is being held captive. When he enters Aang's prison room, without saying a word, he slices at Aang's wrist chains. The Blue Spirit's dual broad swords cut through the metal links and Aang's arms are freed. Here's where the mistake happens. After that initial swipe, the Blue Spirit leaves the room, beckoning for Aang to follow him. And Aang runs after him. How could he have done that if his legs were still chained?

20 Master Of Disguise

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Despite the fact that Aang was alive for 112 years, he was frozen in time when he was just twelve. His immaturity level sometimes shows itself at the least opportune moments. When Aang was looking for an earthbending teacher, he decides to attend an earthbending class taught by a man called Master Yu. However, since the Fire nation is actively looking for him, Aang chooses to disguise himself so that no one knows he is the Avatar. There's just one teensy thing he forgot to hide: his tattoos. He wears a hat to cover his forehead arrow, but his leg and arm arrows are plainly visible. Not to worry. No one notices the bright blue arrow tattoos, not Master Yu or the other pupils. Maybe Aang's disguises aren't as immature as we the audience thought.

19 Following That Smelly Smell

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Katara's necklace is a mainstay of her wardrobe, but in the first season of The Last Airbender, she loses her mother's necklace. Zuko picks it up and hires a mercenary to help locate her. The mercenary he hires is named June, and aside from her spitfire personality, she stands out from other mercenaries because she has a shirshu. The shirshu was a large animal that could follow scents like a magnet follows metal. Once the shirshu sniffs Katara's smell, it follows her tracks and leads Zuko to Aang and his friends. It takes a wrong turn though when it leads Zuko to an herbalist that Aang visited when Katara and Sokka were sick. Katara never visited the herbalist, but for some reason, that's where the shirshu ended up. There's a story error if I ever saw one.

18 A Toddler Or A Teen?

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Hama, the bloodbender that teaches Katara her dark ways, was scarier to me than Fire Lord Ozai. Is it just me, or are really old women and really little girls the creepiest people you could meet in a dark alley? Anyways, when we meet Hama and she tells her story, we find out that she was the one who buried that Fire Nation ship in the ice near the Southern Water Tribe. This contradicts what Katara told Aang about the ship when he first saw it. Katara said that the ship had been frozen since her grandmother was a little girl. But, judging from Hama's age, which is similar to Gran-Gran's, Katara's grandmother must have been a teenager when that ship was frozen. So either Gran-Gran was embellishing the truth or Hama is even older than she looks (and she looks ancient).

17 A Closet Master

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Do you remember those kids in school who seemed smarter than the teacher? I get the feeling that Aang was one of those kids. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the show's creators never addressed the fact that Aang has his arrow tattoos. The arrow tattoos that make up Aang's signature look are a sign that he is an airbending master. And yet, Aang still wears the clothes of an Air Nomad novice. So which is it? In several flashbacks, we see Aang hanging out with a bunch of young students wearing exactly what he is wearing. The only difference between him and his fellow airbending classmates is that Aang has his arrows. But Aang is still being taught by Gyatso. Don't know the reason for this conundrum, but wouldn't it be cool if Aang was a twelve-year-old master?

16 Combustion-Bustion, What's Your Function?

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As The Last Airbender continued on through its three seasons, we got introduced to new kinds of bending. Some waterbenders can bend blood (due to the small amount of water in blood), and let's not forget when Toph invented metalbending (super awesome). But I seriously want to know how combustionbending is related to firebending. Combustionbending involves a person creating a series of explosions using some kind of third eye on their forehead. How does that work? The combustion looks more like a telekinetic burst than fire. And why do combustionbenders have that weird eye on their forehead? Are the eyes there naturally since birth, or are they placed their as a tool to better utilize combustionbending?

15 Time To Do Your Nails

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People who don't like Mai need to re-watch the whole Avatar series again. Her downer attitude might annoy you at first, but I found her dry sarcasm delightfully refreshing from everyone else's strong and hot emotions. When she is first introduced in the episode "Return to Omashu," you knew she wasn't like the typical characters we had met previously. She seemed constantly bored and lethargic. And her fingernails were painted dark gray... some of the time. If you look carefully, you can notice that sometimes her nails are colored in that drab gray that suits her personality so well, and other times they are just their natural beige color. It's doubtless an animation error, but honestly, coloring her nails gray and leaving them alone both feel like something Mai would do.

14 The Librarian Goes, "SHH!"

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When Aang and the gang visit Wai Shi Tong's library, they meet the owl spirit who is the librarian there. I've met quite a few librarians in my relatively mediocre life, and none of them have scared me as much as Wai Shi Tong. He begrudged them their very presence in his library, and by the end of the episode, he was trying to kill them. How in the world did Commander Zhao make it out of the library? Before Aang and his friends visited the library, Zhao found it first and discovered the secret identity of the Moon and Ocean Spirits. How did Zhao locate the library in the middle of the desert by himself? And how did he make it out of there alive with Wai Shi Tong as a librarian? The ever-living-and-breathing Avatar barely made it out of there alive. And Zhao is no Avatar.

13 Rejected

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Aang's unrequited love for Katara (at least initially) gave us some of the cutest and saddest moments in the show. In the first season, during the episode "The Fortuneteller," what I am assuming is a mistake emphasized Katara's casual dismissal of Aang unintentionally. Since Katara lost her mother's necklace in a previous episode, Aang made her a new one from Sokka's fishing lines. She gratefully accepts the gift and puts it on immediately. However, when Aang, Sokka, and Katara make their way to a nearby village, the necklace mysteriously disappears from Katara's neck. Despite most of that episode being about Aang's crush on Katara, Aang doesn't notice or remark upon the fact that his gifted necklace is not being worn.

12 Secret Society Symbols

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It would be really cool to be a part of a secret society. Of course, any old, wacky secret society wouldn't do. It would have to be a dignified one, like the Order of the White Lotus. Just look at the White Lotus' members. There's Piandao, Sokka's sword fighting teacher, and crazy King Bumi, Aang's childhood friend. And then there is Uncle Iroh, the most awesome old man ever. There is an inconsistency with the White Lotus in the show though. The design for the White Lotus tile changed across the seasons. In the first season, the design on Iroh's Pai Sho tile looks one way, and then in the next season, the look of the tile changed. Come the third season, the design changed yet again!

11 Do Some Sole Searching

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After watching the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the element that interested me the least was earth. Earthbending didn't seem as epic as the other elements. But that was before I met Toph. After seeing Toph in action, my opinions changed drastically. If you asked me now what bending style I would like to master, I would say earthbending immediately. Using her bare feet to detect movements, Toph could take down nearly anyone who opposed her. In order to do that though, she can't wear soles on her shoes. In the episode "The Runaway," when Katara and Toph scam a Fire Nation town, Katara pretends to report Toph to the authorities. As the authorities drag Toph away, you can see that someone accidentally drew her with soles on her shoes. Whoops! Later in the prison, her soles disappear.

10 One Size Too Small

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Iroh working in a tea shop not his own provides us with some of the most hilarious moments of the second season of The Last Airbender. After being penniless for so long, Zuko and Iroh get jobs serving tea at a tea shop in the great Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se. Part of their uniform is an apron, but apparently it's one size fits most. Zuko puts his on with no problems, but Iroh insists that he can't tie his because it is too small. However, in the next shot (the hilarious one where Iroh takes a sip of horrible tea), Iroh's apron is securely tied behind his back. Iroh, a connoisseur of tea, is apparently also a secret genius at getting small aprons to fit snugly. Or maybe, after he gagged on the tea, he lost a few pounds from the horror of the experience.

9 Magically Returning Weapons

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Don't you wish that items you lose could be returned to you? In The Last Airbender, losing things isn't always a problem. When Appa got stolen, not only did Aang and his friends lose their beloved flying companion, they also lost all the gear that Appa was carrying. The Sandbenders who stole Appa are seen discarding the gear as they search for items they can sell. One of the things they throw away is Sokka's club. However, in a later episode, before Appa is recovered by his friends, we see Sokka pull out and use his club in a vicious encounter with some enemies. How did he get that back? This is definitely a goof, but the part of me that can empathize with losing items doesn't mind it at all. Sokka's club was of better use to him in his hand than lost in the desert.

8 Prepared Sleepwalking

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In the last few episodes of the series, Aang started having panic attacks, fretting about how he was going to defeat the Fire Lord when the time came. I worried alongside him. After the attack during the eclipse failed, I could only imagine how Aang would take on Ozai. Luckily for Aang, he sleepwalked onto a giant Lion Turtle and learned the secret of how to deal with Fire Lord Ozai. Yeah. A giant Lion Turtle. I'm not making this up. This is the awesome world of Avatar. Anyways, when Aang sleepwalks onto the Lion Turtle, he travels barefoot since he had been sleeping before his travels. But when he wakes up, he magically has his shoes on. Did I mention before that lost things have a habit of magically returning to people in this show?

7 The Family Name

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This might be less of a mistake and more a matter of preference, but it still kind of feels like an inconsistency. Some of the characters on the show have last names, family names, yet others don't. Toph, for example, is from the Bei Fong family, so her full name is Toph Bei Fong. Aang does not have a last name, Sokka and Katara do not have a last name, and not even Zuko has a family name. I understand Aang not having a name; he was an Air Nomad, and family names don't seem to go hand-in-hand with monk-hood. But Zuko was part of a royal family. How come he doesn't have a surname? Again, this isn't so much a mistake as it is an inconsistency. It would be nifty if we could understand the naming rules of this world.

6 Wanna See A Hat Trick?

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It was troubling seeing Zuko and Iroh destitute, but it was enraging seeing them ridiculed for their deprived state. Without any money to buy food, Zuko and Iroh had to beg on the streets. With his hat held out to collect coin, Iroh humbly asked passersby for aid. One person who was passing by demanded Iroh dance for entertainment. Iroh placed his hat on the ground and began to dance, always amiable. But while he stood up to dance, his hat disappeared from the shot. Lucky for him the hat reappeared after Iroh's humiliation was over. I don't really care about this animation error. What mattered to me more at the time was how horrible that bozo was to Iroh.