15 Plot Holes In 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' That Are A Crime Against The Four Nations

From Redditor u/neilader:

In my opinion, the biggest plot hole in Avatar: The Last Airbender has always been Admiral Zhao’s refusal to kill Aang under any circumstances. According to Zhao, killing the Avatar would simply cause him to be reborn, so it only makes sense to capture and not kill him. This is absurd. The new Avatar would only be an infant at the time of Sozin’s Comet, meaning that the Fire Nation would have a 100% chance of victory if Aang were killed. Even after the Fire Nation’s victory, the new Avatar would never be able to learn airbending, or possibly anything else depending on how brutal the Fire Nation’s rule is. Zhao’s line of reasoning goes from absurd to absolutely ridiculous when you consider that Aang would eventually have died from old age and been reborn anyway. And by the way, this plot device of the Fire Nation refusing to kill the Avatar is completely dropped in Book 2 and Book 3.

From Redditor u/DEL994:

Zuko is able to catch up with Azula and Aang in the Chase despite his ostrich-horse being far slower than Azula's train-like machine, and Appa, and then Azula's Moongose-Lizard, and Aang's glider. The rest of the Gang and Iroh were able to catch up with them in time too since they didn't know exactly where Aang was going and were divided by a long distance from them and Toph and Iroh didn't even have transport.

From Redditor u/muma10:

It took the Gang months to travel the world, but in the finale they went from the western air temple to Ba Sing Se in a day.

From Redditor u/schmeagles96:

Appa's flying during Sozin's Comet. Not a big deal at all, but it took 10 episodes for the Gang to travel from Ba Sing Se to the Fire Nation capital. Now they can get anywhere they want within a day?

From Redditor u/TvManiac5:

Also for ATLA specifically, the biggest plot hole is how an elite trained group of royal soldiers, easily decided to betray their own kingdom and become the lackeys/fodder of another kingdom because a 15-year-old girl threw empty threats at them.

Seriously, the Dai Li choosing Azula over Long Feng makes no sense and only happened because the writers didn't want to deal with a third antagonist group in the climax of their story. This is fair from a logistic standpoint but it still creates a plot hole.

[Sure, their King was incompetent, but they would have easily] succeeded in taking the king down and establishing a stronger government [if they wanted to]. [Then, they'd also have] the Fire Lord's children as prisoners. Which could have been used as a great bargaining chip if necessary, since even a psychopath like Ozai needs an heir.

From Redditor u/arrianym:

They had no idea that Azula went crazy and banished her entire guard. We know this because they were planning on fighting her together...and then Zuko was like "she's off" and then fought her alone.

What were they gonna do if the guard was there? [I don't care] how good they are, two people cannot take an entire city filled with firebenders + Azula during Sozin's comet, and don't forget the Dai Lee!

It would have made more sense if Iroh / White Lotus had a spy in the castle informing them that Azula banished everyone and the palace is empty...THEN they would have gone knowing that they had a chance at taking the city.

From Redditor u/Khaleesi1798:

When the woman working the ticket office doesn’t believe that Aang is really the Avatar since she sees so many impersonators every day, why didn’t he just air bend to prove it? [Sure Toph was able to get the tickets, but it makes no sense that Aang would've just not said anything to prove his identity and get the tickets. He could even do it subtly so he didn't draw attention.]