Nickelodeon‘s Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated basic with no scarcity of battle, as the show has more than enough heroic characters and unhealthy guys to go round. Regardless of the Fireplace Nation’s purpose of taking on the world, the episode’s antagonists vary far past those that serve that final purpose. There’s Hama from the Southern Water Tribe, these Earth-Kingdom troopers in “Zuko Alone,” and even beings from the Spirit World. Not each considered one of Staff Avatar’s foes is equally attention-grabbing, after all. The person from season three who shoots huge blasts out of his eye would not even have dialogue, and he mainly has simply as a lot persona. That is a sub-par villain, however a lot of the others all through Avatar: The Final Airbender are extra engrossing.
You do not have to begin off as a villain to be a very good one, nor does a villain have to stay one with a purpose to be among the many sequence’ finest. An awesome nemesis would not essentially need to be evil of their core, inclined to violence, and even share the worldview of the folks they’re appearing with. Some play on a sure facet as a result of that is the state of affairs they have been born into (or have been compelled into alongside the way in which), and Avatar does an amazing job of exhibiting simply how a lot one’s circumstances decide one’s path in life. Then there is a character like Iroh, who feels too peaceable to really be a villain—regardless of his position in serving to Zuko discover the Avatar in season one. Whether or not they seem in just one episode or act as recurring characters, the very best antagonists in Avatar: The Final Airbender are ranked by their thematic weight, their degree of nuance, how they set about reaching their targets, and the explanation for why they’re appearing towards the sequence’ heroes within the first place.
10
Commander/Admiral Zhao
Voiced by Jason Isaacs
Whereas Zuko is chasing the Avatar in season one, so is Commander (later Admiral) Zhao. Voiced by Jason Isaacs, he is kind of an ordinary unhealthy man who has adopted the Fireplace Nation philosophy, orders his troopers round, and will get actually mad when issues do not work out. Not like Zuko, he would not have a lot of a backstory that may give him any internal battle relating to his position within the Fireplace Nation. He did, nonetheless, used to have a famously sensible and highly effective grasp (Jeong Jeong), who advised him that he lacked the persistence to change into a really nice bender.
This proves fairly correct, as Aang methods him into burning his ships down and Zuko beats him at an Agni Kai. Probably the most attention-grabbing factor about Zhao is that he visited a secret spirit library in the course of a desert and used the data he discovered there to give you a strategy to kill the moon and obliterate the water-benders’ talents. This could not solely have an effect on Aang and pals after they go to the library themselves, however his plans would come to scary fruition within the season one finale. Ultimately, Zhao was a good adversary.
9
Firelord Ozai
Voiced by Mark Hamill
Firelord Ozai is simply as evil as Zhao, however he is clearly way more highly effective and has a fair cooler voice (because of Mark Hamill). There is not a lot nuance to him as a personality, which might be appropriately for the last word villain of a children’ present. His essential job for a lot of the sequence is to look intimidating, which he actually accomplishes. What makes him particular is how he provides nuance to Zuko and Azula’s characters, as he traumatizes the previous and offers the latter a drive to succeed that primarily forfeits any moral instincts.
This man would not fiddle, as he challenged his personal son to an Agni Kai for merely talking out of flip throughout a gathering. Moreover, though Zuko refused to struggle him, the Firelord would nonetheless severely burn the boy’s face so badly that it left a horrible scar. As if that weren’t unhealthy sufficient, he then banished his son and advised him to not return with out the Avatar. Together with the way in which that he had his father killed for the throne, Ozai’s backstory greater than makes up for his pretty generic persona.
8
Ty Lee
Voiced by Olivia Hack
Some villains deliver suspense and foreboding, whereas others are extra lighthearted. Ty Lee (Olivia Hack) has such a bubbly persona that she qualifies as somebody who’s constantly amusing to look at. She does a bunch of flips, makes jokes, flirts with Sokka whereas she’s combating him, and is so good at fight that she will be able to hit folks’s stress factors such that their bending goes away. Her cheeriness serves as a pleasant distinction to Mai and Azula, who aren’t the friendliest of individuals.
Ty Lee is very attention-grabbing as a result of she would not even need to struggle within the first place. She’s a circus performer, and he or she solely joins the seek for the Avatar after Azula threatens her throughout her personal efficiency. Ty Lee would finally betray Azula when it appears she’s about to kill Mai, which speaks to her true character and loyalty to the pal who is not pure evil. Playful but compelling characters like this assist make Avatar considered one of the best Nicktoons of all time.
7
Mai
Voiced by Cricket Leigh
The emotional reverse of Ty Lee, Mai (Cricket Leigh), is both throwing an countless quantity of darts and knives at folks or sitting round bored. Not the sunniest character on the planet, she naturally has a romantic historical past with Zuko. Certainly, when she’s with the Fireplace Nation prince, we see that she does have emotions. It is attention-grabbing how we’re in a position to see the trajectory of their relationship so clearly (even from their childhood), and but she’s solely launched in season two. It simply goes to indicate how a lot a sharply written sequence can do with just a few excellent seasons.
Regardless of her demeanor, Mai could be a very humorous character. When Azula comes to select her up, she’s able to go simply in order that she will be able to have one thing to do. When our heroes sneak up on her and Ty Lee within the season two finale to free Bosco, all they should do is disarm Ty Lee. Seeing that she’s outmatched, Mai sighs “Simply take the bear.” It is hilarious that she would not even attempt to cease them. Then there’s her betrayal of Azula, making her one of many extra difficult villains within the sequence.
6
Lengthy Feng
Voiced by Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown has performed such villains as Captain Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption and Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series, so it is no shock that he knocks his Avatar position out of the park: Chief of the Dai Li, Lengthy Feng. This man has kind of been the shadow king of the Earth Kingdom stronghold Ba Sing Se, utilizing the clueless Earth King as his puppet. The Dai Li is a secret police pressure that he makes use of to manage the town, arresting and hypnotizing folks into believing there is no such thing as a battle past the partitions.
It takes rather a lot to pressure folks to not converse of the battle, given how Normal Iroh tried to interrupt by means of comparatively not too long ago. Lengthy Feng’s energy makes our heroes’ time in Ba Sing Se ominous and interesting to look at. The Dai Li is ready to seize Appa, too. Regardless of his skill to rise within the ranks, nonetheless, Lengthy Feng is ousted by Azula in considered one of the series’ greatest entries. However, he was a strong villain with distinctive strategies that have been integral to season two’s ambiance.
5
Hama
Voiced by Tress MacNeille
Season three’s “The Puppetmaster” makes it fairly apparent from the get-go that Hama (Tress MacNeille) should not be trusted. It solely will get extra obvious that this Southern Water Tribe native is the one answerable for native disappearances, and but the how nonetheless stays a really intriguing thriller. As this previous girl exhibits Katara other ways of discovering water when there appears to be none round (drawing some from the air, taking some from crops), there is a sinister trace of what is to come back.
Lastly, Hama exhibits Katara a way known as blood-bending—which is each ingenious and scary. That she had no selection however to be taught it in a Fireplace Nation jail is tragic, and her backstory exhibits how trauma and bitterness towards an oppressive energy can flip somebody right into a monster. Although she’s finally caught, Hama’s success at educating Katara tips on how to do it herself (though Katara would not need to know) proves to be considered one of this superb animated fantasy show‘s most unsettling endings. All of the extra important that Katara would finally use this method in “The Southern Raiders,” making Hama way more than only a random villain.
4
Wan Shi Tong
Voiced by Héctor Elizondo
From “The Library,” Wan Shi Tong is the sort of antagonist who would not begin off as such. After Commander Zhao used his library for battle, this big owl has grown distrustful of individuals. Aang and the others are in a position to persuade him that they are right here for nonviolent causes, which is technically a lie. Stopping the Fireplace Nation from taking on the world is a noble trigger, however this spirit librarian is aggressively pacifist. When he discovers that they’ve used his dwelling for army technique, he buries his already well-hidden library so deep into the desert sands that nobody will have the ability to discover it once more.
Allow us to recognize this character’s beautiful design. The juxtaposition between his black-feathered physique and white face evokes the spirit world in an analogous method that the Hei Bai, Moon, and Ocean spirits do. In the meantime, that voice (courtesy of Héctor Elizondo) is each awe-inspiring and chilling. Strongly suggesting that we’re the villains, not him, Wan Shi Tong is the sort of one-episode character who helps make Avatar considered one of the best 2000s fantasy shows.
3
Hei Bai
Dee Bradley Baker
Worthy of a Hayao Miyazaki masterwork, the Hei Bai from season one’s “Winter Solstice, Half 1: The Spirit World” is a black and white spirit creature that comes out at sunset and destroys a village. It is actually indignant, and Aang can do nothing to cease it—at the very least not with fight. These blasts that come out of the Hei Bai’s mouth are terrifically rendered, and the general design of this creature is intimidating in a method that children can nonetheless deal with.
What makes this antagonist nice is the supply of its anger. It seems to be the spirit of the close by forest, which has been largely burnt to a crisp. Early within the episode, Aang comes throughout a statue of an enormous panda—organising the reveal that the Hei Bai’s non-spiritual kind is certainly a panda. Representing Mom Nature’s rage at deforestation, the Hei Bai conveys a message about our should be variety to the environment (additionally worthy of Miyazaki). Total, this villain’s attachment to real-world points has helped Avatar capture viewers’ hearts years after the series ended.
2
Zuko
Voiced by Dante Basco
The indignant Prince Zuko is probably the most conflicted villain in Avatar, to the purpose the place he spends nearly all of season two making an attempt to determine what sort of particular person he ought to be and the second half of season three on Aang’s facet. Earlier than he lastly turns into a very good man, although, Zuko capabilities as an antagonist that the viewers finds itself sympathizing with regardless of the younger man’s technique of regaining his honor. He’s most constantly villainous in season one, however episodes like “The Blue Spirit” and “The Storm” confirmed that Zuko was way more complicated than the common fire-bender even then.
The truth that he spends a lot time making an attempt to make his father proud when his father is the one who gave him that scar is especially tragic, to not point out how he misplaced his mom years in the past. On the identical time, Zuko and his uncle Iroh may be simply as humorous collectively as dramatically resonant. Total, Zuko’s character arc makes him arguably the best character in the show and positively among the finest villains.
1
Azula
Voiced by Gray DeLisle
Whereas Zhao is simply round for season one, Princess Azula is such a mesmerizing villain that she stays a serious participant all through seasons two and three. Her father duties her with tricking her brother Zuko (or “Zoo Zoo,” as she calls him) into getting arrested, in addition to searching down the Avatar herself. Already a fire-bending grasp on the age of fourteen, Azula strikes concern into the hearts of everybody she encounters—even her pals, Mai and Ty Lee.
Her blue-colored flames and lighting bolts visually distinguish her from different fire-benders, and he or she is so good at strategizing that her trio conquers Ba Sing Se with no formal army battle. But she’s nonetheless weak. Considered one of the most bizarre episodes in the series reveals that she’s inept in common social settings, and her emotional breakdown on the finish of the present conveys how she’s simply as a lot a sufferer of her upbringing as her brother. Watching her mom converse to her within the mirror is deeply unhappy, and Azula’s ultimate scene cements her as one of the vital psychologically participating villains in animation historical past.
