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An entire new Avatar movie leaked online last weekend (the Last Airbender version, not the James Cameron sci-fi franchise). You might be tempted to watch it now, but with Paramount now actively hunting down the hacker, you’re probably better off waiting until October when Aang, The Last Airbender is officially released. In the meantime, however, there’s another, similar Avatar story that you can watch right now without breaking any laws.
Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender picks up the story of the original Nickelodeon animated series several years after the events of the show. Aang and his teenage friends are young adults now, and they’re still facing new challenges even after defeating the evil Fire Lord Ozai in the series finale. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen adult versions of Team Avatar. One episode of the follow-up series The Legend of Korra offered an intriguing look at the events that immediately followed the original show.
The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the next Avatar, who is born after Aang dies at age 66. By then, most of Team Avatar has moved on, although we do get a few cameo appearances from characters like Toph, Katara, and Zuko. However, in season 1 episode 9, “Out of the Past,” we get a full-blown flashback.
At the start of the episode, Korra has been kidnapped by Tarrlok, a powerful politician and antagonist on the show who views the Avatar as an obstacle to his own plans to deal with the anti-bending Equalist movement and its mysterious leader, Amon. Tarrlok initially tells Korra’s friends that she was taken by Amon, buying time for his own evil plans. Meanwhile, trapped in a metal box, Korra has no way to escape and instead uses her Avatar powers to access a memory from her past life — Aang.
The flashbacks only take up a little over five minutes of the episode’s runtime, but they tell a captivating story of crime and punishment during the rule of Avatar Aang. We get to see Aang take on a powerful enemy and also interact with Toph, who’s serving as police chief but still mockingly calls him “Twinkletoes.” Catching up with Sokka, who dies before the beginning of Legend of Korra, is a particular treat.
“Out of the Past” is also a pretty dark episode, especially by The Last Airbender standards. If you’re not used to The Legend of Korra, you may be shocked by both the violent imagery and dark storytelling at play (it’s nothing too wild, but little kids may struggle). That said, if you’re up for it, this episode is the perfect way to experience a story about Aang and his friends as adults without watching an illegal upload of an unfinished movie on X.
And if “Out of the Past” inspires you to watch (or rewatch) all of Legend of Korra, all the better.
Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender is scheduled to be released on Oct. 9 on Paramount Plus. Legend of Korra is streaming now on Paramount Plus.
