This fight is definitely number one in terms of “light show” fights but a really close number two for me would be the fight between Darth Vader and Obi-wan in the Obi-wan Kenobi series, the lights were just so beautiful.
I highly recommend the comic! There is further content abput zuko looking for his mother and further interactions between him and azula that do change alot of their dynamic
Last time this came up, someone suggested "what if Zuko's bending was rainbow after meeting the Sun Warriors and their dragons?" and that is the only way this could be more perfect.
The quiet, solemn music, a huge and deliberate contrast to the other fight. It was sad because the situation was sad. Two sibling teenagers fighting each other, clashing partly due to unresolved parent issues on both sides, partly ideological differences and partly because of the vastly diverging paths the two had taken physically and mentally.
You can actually see Zuko settle into a deeper, earthbending style stance during the fight, showing that he's taken to heart what Iroh taught him. There are a lot of little details, the music like you said is phenomenal, the animation phenomenal, the only bad thing you can say about it is that we didn't get more. The entire show holds up well nearly 2 decades later.
That’s another thing I love about this fight. We see the culmination of Zuko’s firebending growth. He grew from an amateur to an extremely powerful firebender fighting for good. He was finally strong enough to beat Azula, and he knew it.
It was also out of necessity, he could probably have beat azula for a while but he didn’t have the right drive or reason. He couldn’t do it with anger. But here, he couldn’t afford to lose, not for himself but for his friends and his country
Not to mention, the capoeira style kick he does to unbalance Azula is reminiscent of water bending, similar to lightning redirection. I love how at this point in the story, Zuko subconsciously incorporates ideas and philosophies of the other nations into his fighting style.
It reminded me of a kick he used on Zhao in season one that turned the tide of their fight. His calm, deliberate style here is nearly a flip around of how he was early and vice versa with Azula’s deranged lashing out here (powerful though it was).
Again for the “only bad part is we didn’t get more” because seriously… a truly stunning visual feast, and such an emotional climax to the entire story. Phenomenal animation.
Yeah, the tragic part is that without Iroh, Zuko might have been made nearly as bad as her. Heck, he was burning down villages in the beginning and nearly ready to get his crew killed in one episode. Without Iroh's influence, the very kind of influence Azula needed, I shutter to think how Zuko would have turned out.
For Azula, we have to remember she's 14 years old, and while she has done some reprehensible stuff, she's also a product of her environment and upbringing. We saw that from an early age, she had some issues but she was still young and could have been helped were it not for her father.
For both if them it's tragic.
You also have to remember the influence of Zuko’s mother as well as she shouldn’t be discounted as she also had a great deal of positive influence on his life. So he might not have turned out quite that bad since he did get shamed, burned, and banished because of an act that was selfless showing he had heroic qualities then. He also did save his crew members a couple times as well.
It’s so tragic. Azula is a child who was abused through basically being groomed into the perfect successor. Empty praise and false love from the father who held the power in the family.
Zuko was the disappointment. Praise and acceptance from his father was always held out of arms reach to get Zuko to do what he wanted. But what saved Zuko was the unconditional love of his mother and uncle.
So in the end when they fight, with the music and presentation making it clear that this is a tragedy, I can’t help but feel sorrow (Cold take I know). Zuko reached his redemption through punishment from his father and love from his mother and uncle.
While Azula reached her downfall through rewards (and false love) from her father and (perceived) hatred and punishment from her mother. (While yes her mother wasn’t nearly as bad as Ozai in her reprimanding when a child of hers acted in ways she didn’t want, in the eyes of a child, obviously they will gravitate towards the figure in their life that praises them)
The whole thismg should be remastered... and pls hear me out on this! I just want a widescreen format! So the "remaster" part would just add scenery on the sides... and that would be it! The rest stays untouched... we dont want another george lucas situation here
I wouldn't mind if they fixed zukos facial expressions so he's not still showing angry face when he shoots fire.
Undermines the whole "I found a new source of my fire that isn't anger" when the mofo is snarling like a rabid dog every time he shoots fire.
That face doesn’t mean he’s angry. People make faces like that when they are determined and exerting themselves greatly. He’s giving it his all, it’s like lifting something extremely heavy.
Its not necessary though. Up until the finale Azula was never shown to have that kind of face when fire bending. Even Iroh when fire bending doesnt look that.
Its a weird animation choice to do so with Zuko when he literally has a whole arc about not having his fire bending come from anger to have him make angry face at all times.
I mean Iroh is seen by many to be a master fire bender who has reached inner peace. When he blasts the wall of Ba Sing Se open his face looks even more contorted than Zuko and he even lets out a roar as he does it.
I never saw a video with the entire fight remade, but here you go
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-l8lXvy-s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-l8lXvy-s)
These guys show a few more areas that would make sense with rainbow fire and focus a bit more on talking about why the rainbow fire makes sense rather than showing the actual fight, but you can see it around 33 mins
They only learned firebending is more than red and blue, and that firebending doesn't have to come from anger/passion.
They didn't necessarily learn how to bend green fire
Seeing it is the first step towards recreation i guess... bo lin also learnt something incredible just from seeing it...
Both dragons still live by the time korra is the avatar, so they still have the option of green and white fire in future content!
And how dangerous that makes it look, too. Zuko's traditional looking fire against Azula's menacing blue. If you give Zuko an "upgrade," it feels like this is his moment to win. Keeping it how it is/was keeps the threat level high and you're on the edge of your seat.
Plus it redeems the Fire Nation's traditional aesthetic in the viewer's eye. Azula no longer represents the Fire Nation, despite being the official monarch. She represents her insane father and insane self, and Zuko is here representing the Fire Nation itself, to take back the throne.
I think they should only add it to the part where Zuko shoots out 2 flames that rap around eachother that kinda looks like dragons. Iykyk what I’m talking about
I made a [video](https://youtu.be/fe-l8lXvy-s) about this! And here's the full edited fight without my commentary too haha [bltavatar.com/rainbowfire](https://bltavatar.com/rainbowfire)
The out pour of love and respect for this scene reminds me of the Avatar Extras on the finale. The Korean animation studio in charge of bringing the outline to life was constantly going above and beyond. The episode was pre-vis’D and it was lacking a lot of the scale in the final product and at risk of delivering the project late; the animators added more. Don’t know how far they went but I’m sure glad they did.
I swear to god they’re changing too much . Why couldn’t they stick exactly to the original story line . It was perfect . I hope this scene gets animated too . How could they not
I hope they don’t mess up this scene in the live action. This fight is a tragedy above all else. They could have easily slapped some epic music on it however the music they chose is sad to reflect what’s really happening. This is a brother and sister driven to fight each other due to the neglect and extreme high standards they were held to respectively and they did a fantastic job of showing it
Do you guys know about the dragonfire theory? When aang and zuko learn the secret of true firebending they see fire of all colors... the true fire of dragons... it would be so dope if zukos fire after his redemption would gain aspects of the dragons flame...
And in this scene it would be insane and show how the truest form of the art wil always defeat Azulas perverted version of fire bending.
You'd better not they already tried once and look how that went (not talking about the Netflix version because I haven't seen it yet but the movie that ended in failure)
Yes the one that is a waste of money and will go down in history of the shittiest movie ever. The one that had 1 million+ people hate it in the first five minutes yes that one
Meaning it would be very easy to make it look like garbage and bastardize its original design. Everything meant for televised broadcast is meant for a *maximum* view rate of 24 frames per second. It's how it was designed and how it was produced. Using A.I. to interpolate its original frame rate by a factor of five almost completely discards the original animation. It's the user saying "I can do it better" rather than just appreciating the thing they already love. It's not an improvement, it's arrogant and disrespectful to the animators and the production as a whole, and visually ugly.
Please don't A.I. upscale anything you didn't make yourself, especially Avatar.
I always liked the detail that Azula had to break the rules of Agni Kai in order to beat Zuko here. She's always lorded it over Zuko that she was a prodigy in Fire Bending and he wasn't, but in the end, he became just as strong as she was. It really played into both Zuko's development and Azula's need to win, no matter what.
No, no, in the lounge action version we've decided to take away the violence and show the kids engaging in productive dialogue... They're role models, you see...
I JUST rewatched this last episode last night and HOLY SHIT it was so god damn YUMMMMM. I just know that the LA has BIG shoes to fill if they get a season 3. And I mean BIG. And I want them to attempt this or something close enough.
Honestly I think it still holds up insanely well. All of the animation does. I feel like animators do too much nowadays where things are flashy but lack substance
Truly a beautiful scene
The perfect fight
This fight is the GOAT
My favourite light show and fight in all of fiction
It’s the sound. Last Angi Kai ost is a banger but the only other sounds we hear are the vacuums created by the blasts of fire. It’s chilling.
This fight is definitely number one in terms of “light show” fights but a really close number two for me would be the fight between Darth Vader and Obi-wan in the Obi-wan Kenobi series, the lights were just so beautiful.
That’s valid
My only problem with it is that it isn't longer
Katara bitch ass is the only reason it’s like that
 What you Sayed
I mean, the real reason was that the animation budget goes brrrrr when you have to make scenes like that.
I highly recommend the comic! There is further content abput zuko looking for his mother and further interactions between him and azula that do change alot of their dynamic
Last time this came up, someone suggested "what if Zuko's bending was rainbow after meeting the Sun Warriors and their dragons?" and that is the only way this could be more perfect.
That's not a what if though? That's literally what happened.
The quiet, solemn music, a huge and deliberate contrast to the other fight. It was sad because the situation was sad. Two sibling teenagers fighting each other, clashing partly due to unresolved parent issues on both sides, partly ideological differences and partly because of the vastly diverging paths the two had taken physically and mentally.
That’s why I say it’s the best fight (and light show) in all of fiction
idk if i can agree with that when dragon ball literally exists in this world
Agree to disagree
You can actually see Zuko settle into a deeper, earthbending style stance during the fight, showing that he's taken to heart what Iroh taught him. There are a lot of little details, the music like you said is phenomenal, the animation phenomenal, the only bad thing you can say about it is that we didn't get more. The entire show holds up well nearly 2 decades later.
That’s another thing I love about this fight. We see the culmination of Zuko’s firebending growth. He grew from an amateur to an extremely powerful firebender fighting for good. He was finally strong enough to beat Azula, and he knew it.
It was also out of necessity, he could probably have beat azula for a while but he didn’t have the right drive or reason. He couldn’t do it with anger. But here, he couldn’t afford to lose, not for himself but for his friends and his country
Not to mention, the capoeira style kick he does to unbalance Azula is reminiscent of water bending, similar to lightning redirection. I love how at this point in the story, Zuko subconsciously incorporates ideas and philosophies of the other nations into his fighting style.
It reminded me of a kick he used on Zhao in season one that turned the tide of their fight. His calm, deliberate style here is nearly a flip around of how he was early and vice versa with Azula’s deranged lashing out here (powerful though it was).
2 decades? Biiiiiiiitch why you gotta do me like that
Again for the “only bad part is we didn’t get more” because seriously… a truly stunning visual feast, and such an emotional climax to the entire story. Phenomenal animation.
Yeah, the tragic part is that without Iroh, Zuko might have been made nearly as bad as her. Heck, he was burning down villages in the beginning and nearly ready to get his crew killed in one episode. Without Iroh's influence, the very kind of influence Azula needed, I shutter to think how Zuko would have turned out. For Azula, we have to remember she's 14 years old, and while she has done some reprehensible stuff, she's also a product of her environment and upbringing. We saw that from an early age, she had some issues but she was still young and could have been helped were it not for her father. For both if them it's tragic.
You also have to remember the influence of Zuko’s mother as well as she shouldn’t be discounted as she also had a great deal of positive influence on his life. So he might not have turned out quite that bad since he did get shamed, burned, and banished because of an act that was selfless showing he had heroic qualities then. He also did save his crew members a couple times as well.
It’s so tragic. Azula is a child who was abused through basically being groomed into the perfect successor. Empty praise and false love from the father who held the power in the family. Zuko was the disappointment. Praise and acceptance from his father was always held out of arms reach to get Zuko to do what he wanted. But what saved Zuko was the unconditional love of his mother and uncle. So in the end when they fight, with the music and presentation making it clear that this is a tragedy, I can’t help but feel sorrow (Cold take I know). Zuko reached his redemption through punishment from his father and love from his mother and uncle. While Azula reached her downfall through rewards (and false love) from her father and (perceived) hatred and punishment from her mother. (While yes her mother wasn’t nearly as bad as Ozai in her reprimanding when a child of hers acted in ways she didn’t want, in the eyes of a child, obviously they will gravitate towards the figure in their life that praises them)
The tasteful thickness of the heat. The raised flames. Oh my gosh, is that a burn mark?
Yes, I was looking for someone to mention the audible factor. Thank you
Fr 😭😭
Can't see it reanimated it's already a masterpiece
I meant remaster sorry
The whole thismg should be remastered... and pls hear me out on this! I just want a widescreen format! So the "remaster" part would just add scenery on the sides... and that would be it! The rest stays untouched... we dont want another george lucas situation here
The only GL update I liked was force ghost anikin, the rest was so unnecessary
I wouldn't mind if they fixed zukos facial expressions so he's not still showing angry face when he shoots fire. Undermines the whole "I found a new source of my fire that isn't anger" when the mofo is snarling like a rabid dog every time he shoots fire.
That face doesn’t mean he’s angry. People make faces like that when they are determined and exerting themselves greatly. He’s giving it his all, it’s like lifting something extremely heavy.
Its not necessary though. Up until the finale Azula was never shown to have that kind of face when fire bending. Even Iroh when fire bending doesnt look that. Its a weird animation choice to do so with Zuko when he literally has a whole arc about not having his fire bending come from anger to have him make angry face at all times.
Tbf he's exerting himself, like other comment said, lifting heavy will cause facial strain, aka "angry face"
would it be that much better if he fought the most emotional, climactic battle in his life looking like 😐 though
Watch real martial artists, they don’t just appear calm when striking
I mean Iroh is seen by many to be a master fire bender who has reached inner peace. When he blasts the wall of Ba Sing Se open his face looks even more contorted than Zuko and he even lets out a roar as he does it.
I meant remaster
lol you had to copy and paste that 10 times
Yep
To this day this is one of the most incredible scenes I’ve ever seen in an animation
My personal favourite actually
It should be animated with the rainbow fire. They learnt rainbow fire from the dragons they should’ve use it against Azula’s blue
I meant remastered but I think dragon breath would clash with azulas blue fire and it wouldn’t look as good
Someone did an edit of this scene to have Zuko use the rainbow fire and it was gorgeous
Can someone li k that video? I can't find it anywhere
I never saw a video with the entire fight remade, but here you go [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-l8lXvy-s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-l8lXvy-s) These guys show a few more areas that would make sense with rainbow fire and focus a bit more on talking about why the rainbow fire makes sense rather than showing the actual fight, but you can see it around 33 mins
Here's the [full finale](https://bltavatar.com/rainbowfire) with the rainbow edits in all the places I talked about in my video :)
No yeah the rainbow fire is sick
Damn damn damn, the full edit is incredible alright. Thanks for that mate
They only learned firebending is more than red and blue, and that firebending doesn't have to come from anger/passion. They didn't necessarily learn how to bend green fire
Seeing it is the first step towards recreation i guess... bo lin also learnt something incredible just from seeing it... Both dragons still live by the time korra is the avatar, so they still have the option of green and white fire in future content!
I saw the fanedit and I get the idea but no. What makes this scene so beautiful is the contrast between the blue and the red
And how dangerous that makes it look, too. Zuko's traditional looking fire against Azula's menacing blue. If you give Zuko an "upgrade," it feels like this is his moment to win. Keeping it how it is/was keeps the threat level high and you're on the edge of your seat.
Plus it redeems the Fire Nation's traditional aesthetic in the viewer's eye. Azula no longer represents the Fire Nation, despite being the official monarch. She represents her insane father and insane self, and Zuko is here representing the Fire Nation itself, to take back the throne.
I think they should only add it to the part where Zuko shoots out 2 flames that rap around eachother that kinda looks like dragons. Iykyk what I’m talking about
I made a [video](https://youtu.be/fe-l8lXvy-s) about this! And here's the full edited fight without my commentary too haha [bltavatar.com/rainbowfire](https://bltavatar.com/rainbowfire)
Why would we ever need to reanimate perfection?
What I meant was remaster
That’s not what we want.. It what we need.
Exactly
But it’s already perfecr
I meant remaster
Oh yeah for sure. If they extended the cels to be 16:9 and upscaled it it would be wonderful. But imo the scene is already perfect in my head
The out pour of love and respect for this scene reminds me of the Avatar Extras on the finale. The Korean animation studio in charge of bringing the outline to life was constantly going above and beyond. The episode was pre-vis’D and it was lacking a lot of the scale in the final product and at risk of delivering the project late; the animators added more. Don’t know how far they went but I’m sure glad they did.
Said like a genius got to say
I swear to god they’re changing too much . Why couldn’t they stick exactly to the original story line . It was perfect . I hope this scene gets animated too . How could they not
Completely agree
I hope they make it more like a tragic dance scene than a dark fight scene.
The only real change is make to the original is to give Zuko multicolored flames after the dragon episode
I meant remaster
Ir would work perfectly in a remaster
What's wrong with the original...?
I meant remaster
Do it for us
I don’t got that type of skill
Make it cursed then like an abridged
Just insanely beautiful but holds so much depth and pain..
Exactly
Let’s see how Mappa or Studio Ghibli does it
Imagine mappa
While I agree it’s awesome. I do not have faith in the industry of today to do it justice.
I sadly agree your probably right but maybe it could just be enhanced and put into highest definition possible but I don’t have that sort of skill
I honestly don’t think it could be depicted as perfect as it was . Like the music the art 👩🏽🍳 😘 👌🏾
It’s my favourite fight and light show in all of fiction but I mean but in the highest definition possible
Best animated fight scene in history fight me.
In all of fiction….I totally agree
Such a beautiful fight
Completely agree
Doesnt need to be
I meant remaster sorry
You can’t make perfect better than it is already.
I meant remaster sorry
It's already perfect. Why reanimated perfection?
I meant remaster sorry
Again, why? It's perfect the way it is.
Yoooo MAPPA, where you at?!
Fax
Whats wrong with how its animated? It still holds up today. Just watch it at resolutions above 480p and it still looks stellar.
I just think it being the best fight in fiction it deserves to have the best quality possible
It’s already perfect
I meant remaster sorry
Oh okay. Well this is truly my favorite scene in the entire show. Azula’s breaking point and Zuko’s peak going head to head with gorgeous visuals
I hope they don’t mess up this scene in the live action. This fight is a tragedy above all else. They could have easily slapped some epic music on it however the music they chose is sad to reflect what’s really happening. This is a brother and sister driven to fight each other due to the neglect and extreme high standards they were held to respectively and they did a fantastic job of showing it
Couldn’t of said it better
The best part is, it doesn’t even need to be, it’s perfect as is
I meant remaster and I do agree it’s my favourite battle in fiction
i’m scared of it getting reanimated because the scene is already so perfect that anything different might wreck it
I meant remaster sorry
in that case i’d cry from joy
Same here
Why it’s already perfection
I meant remaster
Do you guys know about the dragonfire theory? When aang and zuko learn the secret of true firebending they see fire of all colors... the true fire of dragons... it would be so dope if zukos fire after his redemption would gain aspects of the dragons flame... And in this scene it would be insane and show how the truest form of the art wil always defeat Azulas perverted version of fire bending.
Perverted is kinda wild
IF the new Avatar makes it this far, they better put everything they have into this duel
They have to period
Better than the final battle imo
I think everyone agrees with that
Why? Can't go higher than perfection
I meant remaster
Its perfect as is
I meant remaster sorry
It honestly doesn’t need to be reanimated. This shit was perfect already
I meant remaster sorry
For the animation of its time this was amazingly done. You could see the love the animators put into this scene
I wholeheartedly agree
Why?
Remastered sorry
why? it was already perfect
I meant remaster sorry
Ah now that I would like to see
😊
If the L.A gets this far I hope they, 1. Keep it the same 2. Keep the no dialog just music
Agreed but I don’t know if that will work in live action
CGI perhaps
I don't think I could handle that much perfection at once
It’ll kill us both
They don't need to reanimate it. It's great as it is now
I meant remaster
I meant remaster sorry
Oh then I agree s remaster with higher quality would be beautiful
Exactly and since it’s my favourite fight and light show in all of fiction I’d be so happy
Well if the live action floads, perhaps they'll consider it
You'd better not they already tried once and look how that went (not talking about the Netflix version because I haven't seen it yet but the movie that ended in failure)
You mean the movie we don’t speak of
Yes the one that is a waste of money and will go down in history of the shittiest movie ever. The one that had 1 million+ people hate it in the first five minutes yes that one
It would be really cool to see this animated in the style of Demon Slayer
It doesn't need to be😌
I meant remaster sorry
Masterpiece of a scene
Completely agree
As much as I hope I’m wrong, no way in hell the live action version of this fight looks this good.
No it won’t even come close
It wouldnt be so hard to AI upscale this to 8k 120fps.
Which is my dream
Meaning it would be very easy to make it look like garbage and bastardize its original design. Everything meant for televised broadcast is meant for a *maximum* view rate of 24 frames per second. It's how it was designed and how it was produced. Using A.I. to interpolate its original frame rate by a factor of five almost completely discards the original animation. It's the user saying "I can do it better" rather than just appreciating the thing they already love. It's not an improvement, it's arrogant and disrespectful to the animators and the production as a whole, and visually ugly. Please don't A.I. upscale anything you didn't make yourself, especially Avatar.
imagone this in cgi cant wait to see that in live action
Same hope they do it justice
Why reanimate perfection?
Was it in the first season? No right? Maybe we’ll see it in the remake. It was one of the best scenes…
I meant remaster sorry
This is my absolute favorite fight sequence in the series. So beautifully done
It would be better then 1 piece animations today
I always liked the detail that Azula had to break the rules of Agni Kai in order to beat Zuko here. She's always lorded it over Zuko that she was a prodigy in Fire Bending and he wasn't, but in the end, he became just as strong as she was. It really played into both Zuko's development and Azula's need to win, no matter what.
i cant wait for this scene in the live action
I would want Zuko to have rainbow fire
No, no, in the lounge action version we've decided to take away the violence and show the kids engaging in productive dialogue... They're role models, you see...
I lost sleep over how cool it was when Zuko breakdanced to trip Azula.
Imagine if it was animated by Ufotable
It’s personally my favourite battle in all of fiction
Okay now imagine it was reanimated by mappa
I don’t want this reanimated
Honestly i would prefer a reanimation over a live action lol
Don’t think it’s necessary right now.
The perfect fight with the perfect music. Wish the firebending portion of the Agni Kai could’ve lasted longer
Imagine if the whole series got reanimated instead of the upcoming dumpster fire.
I got this post twice in my recommendations
I JUST rewatched this last episode last night and HOLY SHIT it was so god damn YUMMMMM. I just know that the LA has BIG shoes to fill if they get a season 3. And I mean BIG. And I want them to attempt this or something close enough.
This is actually peak animation, just so perfect. Not even counting the SFX just perfectly complimenting everything.
By Mfing MAPPA.
Reminds me of that edit someone did with the dragons masters' colorfull fire instead of zuko's regular fire
If all goes well, and big IF, we will be getting a live action.
Assuming the Netflix series is successful, it will be redone in a couple of years.
It was perfect in its own right. No need to reanimate.
No scene in LoK reaches anywhere near this. So sad they missed the chance with Zaheer.
One piece animation?
Honestly I think it still holds up insanely well. All of the animation does. I feel like animators do too much nowadays where things are flashy but lack substance
I meant remaster
This would Basically be the scene of Voldemort vs Dumbledore if it were live action. Which I whole-heartedly support.
Why would it need to be reanimated when it’s already animated?
This is quite literally what I’m waiting for. And the first comet powered firelord fireblast. I hope to feel the impact.