Everything Wrong With The Last Airbender

The End of Zhao

I was originally going to title this, The Death of Zhao, but that would be too dark (and inaccurate).

As we know, Zhao tries to overcome the moon factor in fighting the waterbenders by killing the Moon Spirit, which has taken on the form of a koi fish with its counterpart, the Ocean Spirit.

And he fails because of Yue's sacrifice. How, you may ask, does the movie decide what to do with Zhao?

They kill him. Yes, literally kill him. In the movie, Zhao escapes the spiritual place and is confronted by Zuko, and they both prepare to fight. Then, Iroh shows up and tells Zuko to stand down and they both leave. After that, Zhao is surrounded by some waterbenders who create a sphere of water and trap him inside it (and he can't fight back because HE CAN'T MAKE HIS OWN FIRE!) The water is swirling around Zhao for several tense seconds and soon the waterbenders release him.

He drops to the ground-dead.

Wow. I have to say I was pretty shocked when I saw this scene. The original show was made for KIDS! CHILDREN! I can't believe they drowned someone and made it so obvious.

What I liked about the show is that they were very subtle about the darker fates of some of the characters. They never actually went right out and said that someone died (except for Kya, Katara and Sokka's mom, but they never showed her dead), leaving that part to be confirmed by the older viewers who understand what really happened (if you are still unsure, Jet did die in season 2).

Yeah, the movie's end of Zhao was pretty disturbing for me. So let's see what was really supposed to happen. Zhao left after the Moon Spirit came back to life and Zuko did appear and confront him. They were about to fight and suddenly, the giant, fish-like Ocean Spirit appeared and grabbed Zhao. Zuko reached out his hand to help Zhao but he was being immature and let himself be taken underwater by the spirit, never to be seen again.

You may be thinking,  AH HAH! That's the same fate as the movie's version. And I'll say, NOPE!

If you watch Legend of Korra (not as good as ATLA, so I stopped watching after the second season), the viewers will find that Zhao was actually taken to the Spirit World, eventually driven into insanity forever.

Weeeeellllll, that's not a great fate either, but he didn't die! And when I saw Zhao be taken by the  Ocean Spirit I didn't think he died-and I was right!

The original end of Zhao was much more fitting because he didn't die, and it makes much more sense that the spirits would punish him for trying to kill one of their own. Also, ZUKO REACHED OUT HIS HAND TO HIM!!!!!

This was a great show of Zuko's true character. Yes, Zhao had tried to kill him and take the Avatar but Zuko tried to help him in the end. Refusing his help was Zhao's problem and led to his end.