Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. It starts out as a goofy action show, but deals with enough complicated themes and intense fights that we’re quickly invested. From there, we get to watch as our favorite characters grow across each season, culminating in a final act that is cathartic, liberating, and intense, from start to finish.

The show, being as good as it is, brings in new fans every day. Those who watch it find much to enjoy. This appreciation for the show was continued in The Legend of Korra, which encouraged newer fans to go back and watch the original instead.

Despite a lot of the narrative cohesiveness established in the show, the writers weren’t perfect and still had some moments in the series that make no sense to us. Even after watching through it several times, these issues are never explained and become some irritating questions. That said, a lot of these things don’t go beyond subtle nitpicks, as the show is still fantastic, but it’s interesting to think about these 20 shocking things in Avatar: The Last Airbender that make no sense.

20 A False Testimony

If you ask anyone what the worst episode in this show is, most of them will point to “The Great Divide.” On paper, it’s fairly interesting, as Aang, Katara, and Sokka are faced with a dangerous canyon that can only be crossed with the help of a guide. The problem comes when it introduces two refugee tribes that have been warring for generations. It doesn’t add anything to the show and it can be easily skipped without missing anything important.

Aang reveals that it was all a lie

The biggest problem is that Aang tells a historical account at the end of the episode to show the tribes that they’ve been fighting over nothing. When asked about it by his friends, Aang reveals that it was all a lie to suit his purposes. It completely goes against his character.

19 How On "Earth" Is This Possible?

When Aang and his friends travel to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, it’s there that they come in contact with the insane but lovable king. Along the way, Aang tells them about his days in Omashu 100 years in the past. His friend, Bumi, would get him into all sorts of trouble.

After completing challenges that the King of Omashu designs as punishment, Aang discovers that the King is his old friend, Bumi. The problem here is that Bumi would be over 100 years old and still manages to be much stronger than almost any other Earthbender in the world. He’s insanely buff and can fight among the best of them. Realistically, it doesn’t add up. That said, we love Bumi and his wacky ideas.

18 The Last-Minute Cop Out

In the finale of the series, Aang has some second thoughts about eliminating the Fire Lord, despite having prepared for it throughout the entire show. While he searches for a solution, he suddenly gets pulled onto the back of a Lion Turtle to learn some odd spiritual lesson. He talks to the other Avatars there, but they don’t do him much good.

It seems like a serious cop out

He ends up talking to the Lion Turtle itself, who tells him about an ancient time where they bent not the elements, but the energy within. Then Aang learns the skill himself and uses it to spare the Fire Lord’s life by taking his bending away instead. For all intents and purposes, it seems like a serious cop out to give Aang a reason to uphold his own spiritual needs.

17 Aang Meeting His Needs Instead Of The World's Needs

What makes the journey of the Avatar so interesting is that they’re the ones tasked with restoring and maintaining balance in the world. This means that they have to make tough decisions for the good of the world, even if it conflicts with their own morality. That was the lesson that Aang learned from all of his past lives.

However, when it all came down to it, he opted not to kill the Fire Lord and instead attempt to take his bending away. This almost doubles back on the lessons he’s had to learn as the Avatar. Instead of operating for the sake of the world, he instead made a decision in order to preserve his own needs and ideas. As the Avatar, that’s not a great way of living one’s life.

16 Not Much Progress In One Thousand Years

After the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we were sent to a show involving the adventures of the Avatar after him: Korra. A mere 60 years after Aang defeated the Fire Lord, the world had made a powerful upscale in technology. There were airplanes, boats, mecha tanks, and entire cities that were inspired by the early 1900s.

However, when we’re shown a flashback to the time of the first Avatar, Avatar Wan, his civilization is very similar to Aang’s. Considering they were several generations apart, the progress between them doesn’t match up when you thrust Korra’s world into the mix. To be fair, this isn’t an issue created in The Last Airbender. We applaud the writers for trying to make a new and exciting world but it just doesn't make sense.

15 How Does This Work Exactly?

After the siege of the North Pole, Fire Lord Ozai’s patience has grown thin. No longer having confidence in Zuko to bring him the Avatar, he sends his daughter, Princess Azula, to get the job done. She proves to be a much stronger and more sinister fighter than her older brother, but that doesn’t mean her abilities are always explained.

We’re never told why her firebending is blue

When she appears, she manages to use blue fire instead of red fire during the battle. While physics tells us that blue fire is hotter than red fire, we’re never told why her firebending is blue. Furthermore, if she can conjure fire like that, than surely Iroh and Ozai would be able to do the same. Regardless, we’re never told why she can do that.

14 Suspending Our Disbelief A Bit Too Much

At the end of season 2, Iroh decides to side with the Avatar and fights the Fire Nation in order to save his life. In the end, he gets captured and placed in a maximum-security Fire Nation prison. However, Iroh hatched up a plan while he was in there to seem demented and helpless. In reality, he was building his strength and working out so that, when the Firebenders temporarily lost their bending, he could bust himself out.

That said, to think that doing any number of push-ups or crunches could result in enough strength to bend steel is kind of ridiculous. We’re glad that Iroh got out, but to believe that he pushed those bars apart with his bare hands is a little extreme.

13 To Live Or Not To Live

Aang, Katara, and Sokka end up trapped in a massive swamp early on in the second season. It’s there that they meet a strange man who takes them to a massive tree at the heart of it all. He states that the tree is alive and is connected to all life in the universe. Aang, believing him, uses the tree in tandem with his Avatar powers to see the world around him.

We’re never given a clear answer

That said, because Aang’s relationship with the tree was solely related to his Avatar Spirit, there’s never any indication that the swamp is actually alive. Yes, it does play tricks on the minds of those who walk into it, but we’re never given a clear answer. Even Sokka agrees with this, saying that Aang’s connection only worked because he’s the Avatar.

12 The Most Pointless Character

During season 3, Zuko hires a strange man to eliminate the Avatar. What’s different about this villain is that half of his body is made out of metal and there’s a strange eye on his forehead. When he first appears, he is revealed to shoot massive explosions out of that eye.

While it’s stated that he’s “bending fire with his mind,” we never get a clear explanation as to who Combustion Man is. We technically don’t even get his real name. A similar character appears in The Legend of Korra, but we’re still not told what their powers specifically are or how they managed to acquire them. We’re just supposed to accept that Combustion Man shoots explosions out of his mind.

11 Somehow They Never Knew Each Other

While traveling undercover in the Fire Nation, Aang and his friends encounter a secret Waterbender named Hama. After Katara revealed that she was a Waterbender too, Hama revealed that she was once a member of the Southern Water Tribe decades ago, around the same time that Kanna, Katara and Sokka’s grandmother, would be around the same age.

We’ll forever be wondering if those two knew each other

The episode put together a few connections between Hama and the scenery that was present in the Southern Water Tribe during the first episode, but we’re never given any connection to her and Kanna. It seems like the writers missed an opportunity there for an added thread to be tied, but we’ll forever be wondering if those two knew each other.

10 From Martial Art To Magic Ability

Throughout the show, we learn how each bender managed to acquire their art. The waterbenders learned how to bend water by studying how the moon pushed and pulled the waves. The firebenders learned their craft from studying the dragons. The earthbenders were taught by blind badger moles. Then, the airbenders studied under the flying Sky Bison.

However, in The Legend of Korra, we were told that the benders first got their abilities by the Lion Turtles across the world. By “bending the energy within,” they could magically give anyone special powers who was nice enough. It’s in stark contrast to what was established in the first series, and it still bothers us to this day.

9 There's No Way They Knew That

The second to last episode of The Last Airbender had Team Avatar taking a trip to Ember Island to see The Ember Island Players stage a theater production about the events of the show. Played as a sort of comical history of the series, what the writers did wrong, and where they stand now, it was a fairly funny episode.

However, once you think about it too hard, the episode breaks down. There’s no possible way that the Ember Island Players would be able to know everything about what happened to Aang and his friends. Knowing specific details like Aang and Katara’s conversation before the invasion is next to impossible.

8 We're Pretty Sure He Exists

During the finale, Aang had managed to find his way on the back of a giant Lion Turtle. However, his disappeared without a trace, and none of his friends knew how to find him. Zuko took the team to a lady named June who had a creature called a Shirshu that could find anyone with a single scent. When they gave the Shirshu something with Aang’s scent on it, the creature couldn’t find Aang as if he didn’t exist.

The Shirshu would’ve been able to find the Avatar

The problem with that is, while Aang was on a Lion Turtle, he was still somewhere in the world. Theoretically, the Shirshu would’ve been able to find the Avatar somewhere on the ocean. That said, it made for an excellent development and led to the team finding Iroh instead.

7 That Seems Awfully Convenient

The series begins with Katara and Sokka discovering a strange iceberg where a boy and his beast lay dormant in it. After breaking the ice and rescuing them, a powerful light shoots up into the air. Nearby, Zuko is on his ship and sees the light, knowing somehow that the Avatar had to be there.

The problem is that it’s extremely convenient that Zuko just happened to be in the South Pole when Aang awoke from his slumber. Furthermore, there were no leads as to where Aang disappeared to, so there wouldn’t be a lot of direction regarding where to look. We get that Zuko had to be there in order for any conflict to be present, but it still doesn’t completely add up.

6 Jong Jong Never Met The Dragon

Not all firebenders were evil. Team Avatar learned this in the first season, where they encountered a legendary master named Jong Jong. He regretted being a firebender, stating that the best he could do was bring harm to other people. However, it was revealed near the end of the series that firebending was not inherently bad and was, instead, beautiful in its own way.

Iroh was one of the few who knew about the ancient firebending technique, along with Aang and Zuko. However, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that a wise master such as Jong Jong would have no clue about this. There’s a chance it’s because he was nothing more than a shut-in and didn’t want to go out into the world, but it would’ve made more sense if he had known in some fashion.

5 After All These Years?

When the gang first makes their way to the Northern Water Tribe, Aang is taught by Master Pakku, the art of waterbending. When Katara states that she wants to learn as well, Pakku denies her. After some conflict, they learn that Pakku was once engaged to Katara’s grandmother, but they were separated after some time.

It’s never explained who Katara and Sokka’s real grandfather is

Once the siege was over, Pakku decided that he was going to go back to the Southern Water Tribe, where he and Kanna rekindled their love and were finally married. The problem here is that it’s never explained who Katara and Sokka’s real grandfather is. Clearly, Pakku and Kanna still had strong feelings for each other, but they never decided to keep in contact after decades? We’re not buying it.

4 The Good For Nothing Spirit

The Fire Nation doesn’t exactly treat its citizens well, and Team Avatar was willing to do something about that. One episode saw them come across a fishing town that was struggling for food and medicine because of a nearby factory that was polluting the water. They believed in a mysterious spirit called the Painted Lady to deliver them.

As a way of helping them out, Katara disguised herself as the Painted Lady to save the town. Yet, at the end of the episode, the real Painted Lady shows up and thanks Katara. The issue we take with that is if the Painted Lady existed all this time and wanted the people to be protected, why had she not done anything earlier? It seems like a bad case of inaction.

3 Instant Buyer's Remorse

Sokka loves going shopping, so it comes as no surprise when he buys a messenger hawk while in the Fire Nation. Cleverly naming the new bird “Hawky,” Sokka spends quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to work the bird. It ends up being used by Katara and Toph to send a letter to her parents. However, that’s the last we see of the paper-carrying bird.

It seems like a plot device

We’re never told what happened to Hawky or whether it returned to Sokka or not. It seems like a plot device only introduced in the show to give Toph the opportunity to reconcile with her parents. On that note, we never know if she and her parents get on good terms again.

2 Where Did The King Go?

If there’s one thing that The Last Airbender is no stranger to, it’s leaving loose ends untied. At the end of season 2, the massive kingdom of Ba Sing Se was taken over by Azula and the Dai Li. The King escapes with the rest of Team Avatar as they leave the Earth Kingdom to find somewhere safe. It was explained that the Earth King and his pet bear became refugees after that point, but that’s all we’re ever told.

Later, when the Order of the White Lotus takes Ba Sing Se back from the Fire Nation, it’s never explained if the King reclaimed his throne or not. All we can do is assume that was the case, as his descendant is the one sitting on the throne during The Legend of Korra. At least, that’s the implication.

1 It Was Magically Made For Aang

At the start of season 3, Team Avatar decides to travel to the Fire Nation. In order to keep his identity a secret, Aang has no choice but to burn his staff in lava. Thankfully, he wouldn’t go forever without a glider backing him up. When he went to invade the Fire Nation with a group of his friends, one of them came with a new glider for Aang.

There’s a snack compartment in the glider

What becomes a slight problem is the fact that there was no way to know that Aang needed a new glider, unless he just made it for the sake of inventing. Then there’s the fact that there’s a snack compartment in the glider, which seems pointless and unnecessary when you think about it. Still, it was a nice gesture to see Aang soaring through the skies again.