The Last Airbender Opening Changes The Original Show In One Big Way

In the original "Avatar: The Last Airbender" timeline, we never see Fire Lord Sozin's attack on the Air Nomads firsthand. We're told that it was brutal, abrupt, and successful. We're told that Aang is the last airbender, and no canon has ever denied that. The Netflix series details exactly how the Fire Nation conducted its genocidal attack, but in doing so, it opens up questions its predecessor avoided by remaining vague.

Sozin attacks the Southern Air Temple because all the other Air Nomads have gathered there for the Great Comet Festival. Later on, it's suggested that similar attacks were launched on the other temples afterward. The pitch here just feels iffy, though. As a nomadic people, it's highly unlikely that every airbender in the world would have been at the festival. From what we're shown, it looks like a couple hundred people at most. Even with so much strength, how could the firebenders get them all? Wouldn't some have flown away? It's awfully hard to catch an airbender, as Aang repeatedly proves.

These questions could just as easily be applied to the animated series, but because that show kept things out of view, it never really felt odd that Sozin accomplished his genocide so easily. The live-action series adds another quandary as well, which is why the airbenders would have made themselves so vulnerable on the night of a comet that boosts firebending.