Five Life Lessons From Avatar: The Last Airbender

When I first watched Avatar the Last Airbender, I was just a child. What drew me and my friends to the show most was the fighting and the sense of grandeur. After all, Aang has just a few months to go before he has to face the most powerful person alive – the Fire Lord. In a lot of ways, how impossible this task feels parrots the feeling we have as children. We were also faced with an impossible task – taking on growing up, and adulthood, and all the things that come along with it.

Now, however, many of who have watched the show on Netflix and helped propel it to #1 on the platform are at a different place in life. We’ve grown up. And yet, obviously, the show still speaks to us.

Indeed, each rewatch of Avatar over the years lends new insights. It’s a show that ages incredibly well, and I’ve grown to appreciate it much more as an adult than I ever did as a child. I also find there are still many life lessons to be learned from the show. Especially from the beloved character of uncle Iroh.

Lesson 1: Achieving Our Goals isn’t Easy

Aang may be destined to save the world – but “he’s got a long way to go before he’s ready to save anybody” in the words of Katara. Unlike many shows or stories where the heroes already have what it takes to face the big bad boss, Aang is sorely underprepared. And he’s pretty much unprepared the entire show, showing only minimal advancements towards becoming a master of all five elements. In fact, by the time we get to the final battle with the Fire Lord, the ever-wise Soka points out that if Aang were to fight the Fire Lord now, he probably would lose.

Beating the Fire Lord isn’t something that just happens. Similarly, achieving our goals doesn’t just happen. It takes intense training and a long journey to get there. Even when we get there, we might find we just aren’t ready for the challenge. But we’ll just have to make do.

Lesson 2: Our Peers Are Our Greatest Teachers

It would have made sense for Aang to train with the greatest masters – the wisened old Jeong Jeong, the crackpot genius King Bumi and the like. But the show creators point out a much greater truth in the show – most of our personal growth comes from our relationships with our peers. Aang doesn’t learn water-bending from a wisened master – he learns it from his friend, Katara. Again and again, it is Aang’s friends who push him to achieve more, learn more, and ultimately become more than it seemed he was capable of.

I think we’re very much the same. We have our college professors who pass on words of wisdom, but it is our rivalries, and living side-by-side with our peers who push and inspire us to become or best.

Lesson 3: Believe In Second Chances

Uncle Iroh passes on enough wisdom in the show to merit its own blog post. But perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from him is that we all can change our lives, and that we should always believe in second chances. Iroh himself is looking for a second chance. Due to some error on his part (it’s never explicitly said what exactly) he lost his son during the failed siege of Ba Sing Sei. This event was the catalyst that sent Iroh on a new path. He’s looking for a second chance to make amends for his past errors. Not only does this mean his becoming involved with the white lotus and eventually striking a hard hit agains the Fire Nation, it also means his taking on Zuko as a sort of step-son. He might not have been able to save his own son, but he will do everything he can to ensure Zuko goes down the right path.

Second chances aren’t just for the young. Sure, there’s a lot we have to decide when we are young, and we should always be aware of the fact that we can change our futures. But Iroh and many others who are older also embrace their second chance.

“I believe people can change their lives if they want to. I believe in second chances.” - Iroh.

Lesson 4: Healing From Our Wounds Takes Time

Throughout the show, up until the third and final season, Aang is pretty much the happy-go-lucky, driven hero we, and the world, need him to be. That changes somewhat when Appa is captured. During this time, Aang shows a different side of him. He gets so discouraged, he even loses hope. It seems all is not so pleasant beneath the surface with our favorite arrow-headed protagonist. We begin to remember the stormy attitude that sent Aang off into the storm in the first place – the choice that would eventually lead him to freeze himself until 100 years later.

We often forget, thanks to Aang’s playfulness, that much like Zuko, Aang is also looking for a second chance. He failed his first chance to save the world 100 years ago. Now, things usually go his way. But when he is almost fatally wounded at the end of the second season (and probably would have died if not for Katara), the old wound surfaces in a big way. Aang is almost emotionally crippled, and it takes the entire third season to get him back on track to where he was in his prime.

Things happen in life for us, too, that often set us off course and impact our self-confidence. We don’t always bounce back right away. But in the words of Uncle Iroh – “Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving... you will come to a better place.”

Lesson 5: Zuko and Katara Will Never Be Together

One of the biggest controversies in Avatar: the Last Airbender stems from the pairing of Aang with Katara. Some people were really happy about Aang and Katara ending up together. Just as many people, however, were infuriated by Zuko and Katara not ending up together. Though the show clearly has it in mind for Aang and Katara to end up together from the start, there are many signs and signals that Katara and Zuko would have made an excellent couple. The two have a similar history, push each other to get better, and make a lot of sense from a story perspective.

One thing, however, that the show has taught its countless fans is this: people don’t always end up with who you think they should end up with. And if that’s not the truth, I don’t know what is.

I hope you enjoyed this list of five life lessons you can learn from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously there are many more life lessons to be learned. Comment below some of the things you learned from the show!