8 Most Disturbing Fates Of Avatar: The Last Airbender & Legend Of Korra Characters

Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, include eight surprisingly disturbing character deaths that stand out as the franchise’s darkest moments. Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s cast and incredible writing team helped turn the franchise into a global hit, leading not only to The Legend of Korra‘s creation, but also two live-action adaptations of the original series. There is also a sequel film in development that will follow an adult Avatar Aang several years after the conclusion of the main series.

By the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, only a small handful of characters have actually died. However, some of the deaths the show does include are surprisingly disturbing. Further, the sequel series is tonally much darker than The Last Airbender, so by the end of The Legend of Korra, there is no shortage of grizzly death scenes. With that in mind, there are eight deaths between the two shows that stand out as the most disturbing or gruesome moments in the franchise.

8

Jet — Freedom Fighter

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Jet’s ambiguous death in Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 is easily one of the show’s darkest moments. After fighting to escape the Dai Li’s lair under Lake Laogai, Jet is fatally wounded by their leader, Long Feng. Considering characters almost never die on-screen in The Last Airbender, this is a shocking turn of events. The scene seems to be purposefully ambiguous, likely in hopes of softening the blow for younger audiences and creating some uncertainty as to whether he is really dying.

Jet’s death sets the stage for a tragic ending to one of Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s best seasons, making it more believable when Aang is nearly killed by Azula’s lightning strike in the season 2 finale. Further, Jet’s death is even more disturbing considering none of the villains die in this encounter, and hardly any villains die in the show at all. The only comforting thing about Jet’s early death is that he redeems himself by helping Aang and his friends find Appa and fend off the villainous Dai Li agents before succumbing to his wounds.

7

Kya — Southern Water Tribe

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Jet’s death might be up there with the most disturbing events in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but the murder of Sokka and Katara’s mother, Kya, is probably the show’s saddest moment. Kya is killed in cold blood by the leader of the Southern Raiders, Yon Rha, after she pretends to be the village’s secret waterbender to save Katara from the Fire Nation. This devastating scene is punctuated by Yon Rha’s cruel comment that he won’t be taking prisoners, making it clear that Kya’s sacrifice saved her daughter’s life.

This scene takes place several years back in Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s timeline, so the audience knows what’s about to happen to Kya, but that doesn’t make the scene much easier to watch. Kya is strongly reminiscent of Katara in the glimpse of her The Last Airbender provides, which also makes it more disturbing when her death scene is shown. This is the only cold-blooded murder described in The Last Airbender, making it easily one of the darkest events in the franchise.

6

Hou-Ting — Earth Queen

The Legend Of Korra

Zaheer’s murder of Earth Queen Hou-Ting is one of the most gruesome moments in The Legend of Korra, as the ruthless villain uses his newfound airbending to pull the air from the Earth Queen’s lungs, killing her in a matter of moments. Zaheer’s bending technique is the only one shown in The Legend of Korra or Avatar: The Last Airbender that is designed specifically to kill. As such, it is one of the most sadistic creations in the franchise, and its use easily earns a spot among the franchise’s most disturbing scenes.

This grizzly scene is also far more graphic than anything shown in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and there aren’t many scenes in The Legend of Korra that can compete with it either. The Legend of Korra is considerably darker than its predecessor, but Earth Queen Hou-Ting’s death is pretty gruesome, even for it. The Earth Queen isn’t exactly a sympathetic character, but that doesn’t make it any less graphic when Zaheer pulls the very air from her lungs.

5

Ming-Hua — Red Lotus Member

The Legend Of Korra

Ming-Hua, the waterbending member of Zaheer’s group in The Legend of Korra, also dies in a disturbing way, succumbing to electrocution when Mako strikes her water tendrils with lightning. Ming-Hua uses her waterbending in place of arms, and she often creates numerous arms while fighting. This strategy makes her extremely formidable, but as Mako demonstrates in their duel, it also makes her susceptible to a lightning strike because water is a strong conductor. Electrocution is a grizzly way to die, making this one of the more disturbing deaths in the franchise.

Ming-Hua’s death is somewhat of a relief to the audience in the moment, as it seems like she might be undefeatable for a moment, but when looking back on it, it’s an unambiguously gruesome way to go. However, considering how difficult of a time Korra’s friends were having taking her down, Mako’s lightning strike might have been the only way to defeat her. Even so, there is nothing pleasant about watching Ming-Hua’s body being racked with a wave of deadly electricity.

4

P’Li — Red Lotus Member

The Legend Of Korra

P’Li is another member of the Red Lotus who meets an extremely ghastly end, dying of one of her own combustionbending attacks when Suyin Beifong bends a metal breastplate around her head just before she fires. Combustionbending is remarkably rare in The Last Airbender‘s world, but the two known characters with this ability prove how powerful it really is. Combustionbending can blow up entire buildings with a well-placed strike, so it’s unpleasant to consider what the damage might’ve looked like inside the breastplate that killed her.

Considering what some of her combustion strikes do in The Legend of Korra, there is no question that P’Li dies in this episode. Luckily, the show doesn’t provide a view of her head after the explosion, but the implication is that she died instantly. With that in mind, P’Li’s disturbing death probably isn’t as painful or graphic as Ming-Hua’s, the resulting damage to P’Li’s body is probably more horrific than Ming-Hua’s. P’Li’s death is also more impactful on Zaheer because she is his girlfriend.

3

Ghazan — Red Lotus Member

The Legend Of Korra

Ghazan is the final member of Zaheer’s group, and his death is no less dark than the others. When Ghazan realizes he can’t defeat Mako and Bolin, he starts using his bending to bring down the cave they’re fighting in, attempting to bury all three of them under several tons of rock. However, Mako and Bolin manage to escape before the cave is completely collapsed, so Ghazan is the only one that dies. It’s chilling that Ghazan was willing to sacrifice his own life to kill Mako and Bolin, making this one of the franchise’s more disturbing death scenes.

Ghazan’s dedication to creating anarchy is a big part of what makes this scene disturbing, but the fact that he is buried under tons of rock is also a contributing factor. Further, Ghazan uses both lavabending and earthbending to bring down the cave, so he could just as easily have been burned up by the lava as crushed by the cave. However, whether he dies from the lava or the falling rocks, this is a dark and disturbing way to go, even for a member of the notorious Red Lotus.

2

Aiwei — Secret Member Of The Red Lotus

The Legend Of Korra

Although several characters in The Legend of Korra die more gruesome deaths than Aiwei, his fate at the hands of Zaheer is as cruel and disturbing as it gets. After failing to kidnap Korra in Zaofu, Aiwei is summoned to the Spirit World to meet with Zaheer, who decides to punish him for failing to capture the Avatar by trapping him in the Fog of Lost Souls to wander for all eternity. It’s hard to imagine any death in Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s world being worse than eternity wandering in fog.

Aiwei is an easily detestable character after it’s revealed that he’s been feigning his loyalty to the Beifong family and is actually a secret member of the Red Lotus, but it’s hard to argue that he deserved the disturbing fate forced on him by Zaheer. He definitely deserved to be locked up for his crimes, but ironically, his decision to flee Zaofu in search of safety actually makes his fate far worse. If he had been captured by Korra, he certainly would’ve spent a long time in jail, but he wouldn’t have to wander in fog for eternity.

1

Tarrlok & Noatak — Southern Water Tribe

The Legend Of Korra

Tarrlok and Noatak’s death at the end of The Legend of Korra season 1 is easily one of the show’s most tragic moments. After Korra figures out that Amon is really Noatak, Tarrlok’s brother, she exposes him as a waterbender, destroying the credibility of his equalist movement. When Noatak and Tarrlok then escape on a speedboat, Tarrlok realizes his brother will never stop, so he uses an electrified glove to ignite the fuel tank in their boat, killing them both in a massive explosion.

While both of these characters are villainous and detestable, their death scene is chilling to watch. Their lives are dominated by tragedy and the cruelness of their father, Yakone, so it’s somewhat conflicting when Tarrlok decides to blow up their boat. It’s hard to imagine Noatak ever becoming good after everything that he does as Amon, but that doesn’t make it satisfying when the brothers die. There’s nothing but sadness and tragedy in this death scene, which is why it’s one of the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise’s most disturbing deaths.