4 Biggest Ways Princess Yue Is Important To Avatar: The Last Airbender

By Lewis Glazebrook Published 5 minutes ago

The final two episodes of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender introduce Princess Yue, a character who is vital to the story for many reasons.

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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Summary

• Princess Yue, vital to The Last Airbender's story, is next in line to lead the Northern Water Tribe's capital city.
• Yue's spiritual role is essential in the Northern Water Tribe, connecting the physical and spiritual worlds for her community.
• Yue's history with the Moon Spirit is pivotal to restoring balance to the world of Avatar, making her a key figure in Sokka and Aang's life.

Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender introduces Princess Yue in its final two episodes, proving her to be one of the more vital characters in the entire show. For the most part, The Last Airbender season 1 explores areas of the Earth Kingdom as Aang, Sokka, and Katara make their way to the North Pole. However, by the time of The Last Airbender season 1's ending, the Northern Water Tribe becomes an equally central part of the show's story.

The final two episodes of the live-action show take place almost entirely in Agna Qel'a, the capital city of one of The Last Airbender's Four Nations. While there, Aang, Katara, and Sokka are introduced to the Northern Water Tribe's royal family. Despite these characters being unlikely to return in The Last Airbender season 2, one of them is central to fighting back against the Fire Nation and Fire Lord Ozai after the latter continued the war waged by his grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin.

4 Princess Yue Is Next In Line To Be Agna Qel’a’s Leader

Yue's centrality to the royal family of the Northern Water Tribe cannot be understated.

The important character in question is Princess Yue, who has a central role in propelling Avatar: The Last Airbender's story forward. While not the most integral part of Yue's character concerning the show's broader plot, her role within her community is a cornerstone of her life. Upon arriving at the Northern Water Tribe, it is quickly relayed to Aang, Katara, and Sokka — as well as the audience — that Princess Yue is the successor of Chief Arnook as Agna Qel'a's leader.

For this reason, Yue is central to the Northern Water Tribe's way of life. Not only is she royalty and thus revered for this alone, but she takes an active role in helping those around her as shown in The Last Airbender episode 7. Yue's importance to the succession of the Northern Water Tribe is only further highlighted in The Last Airbender's season finale when Chief Arnook tells her to stay away from the fighting, even sending Sokka to protect her and Agna Qel'a's royal lineage.

3 Princess Yue Is The Spiritual Leader Of The Northern Water Tribe

Yue also holds a highly spiritual role in Anga Qel'a's community.

Aside from her role as the future Chieftess of Anga Qel'a, Yue is crucial to the Northern Water Tribe for a much more sacred reason. Yue is also one of the priestesses of her tribe, being one of the spiritual leaders of her people. This is tied to her history with the Moon Spirit and explains a past storyline involving Sokka. In The Last Airbender episode 5, a fox spirit guided Sokka through the Fog of Lost Souls, later revealed to be Yue herself.

Yue's fox spirit was an addition to Netflix's The Last Airbender, providing Sokka and Yue's relationship with slightly more history than the original show.

Yue later explains to Sokka that she acts as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds for her people, much like Aang does as the Avatar. Yue's spirituality allows her to cross into The Last Airbender's Spirit World whenever she wishes as explored in episode 5 through her connection with Sokka. One of Yue's primary motives as a Northern Water Tribe priestess is helping her people get in touch with their spirituality, meaning she is vital to the community of Agna Qel'a for more than her royal heritage.

2 Princess Yue’s History With The Moon Spirit Explained

Yue's connection to an ancient spirit links to a turning point in The Last Airbender's entire story.

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As alluded to, Yue's spirituality is heightened among her people due to the princess's connection to a primordial spirit: the Moon Spirit. It is revealed in The Last Airbender episode 7 that when Yue was a baby, she became very sick and was seemingly unable to overcome her illness. In a last-ditch attempt to save her life, Chief Arnook pleaded with the Ocean and Moon Spirits to cure Yue of her illness. Upon placing Yue in the Northern Water Tribe's spiritual oasis, the Moon Spirit transferred some of its life and power to the young Water Tribe princess and saved her life.

This not only explains how Yue is so in touch with her spirituality but proves vital to restoring the world to balance after the Fire Nation tampered with the power of the spirits. As a way to defeat the Water Tribe and remove the power of the Waterbenders from the world completely, Admiral Zhao targets the Ocean and Moon Spirits' physical forms — two Koi fish. Zhao wishes to destroy the Moon Spirit, removing the source of the Waterbenders' power and thus eliminating the Water Tribes as a threat to the Fire Nation's war.

However, Yue realizes that she can give back to the Moon Spirit what it gave to her as a baby.

Tragically, Zhao succeeds and kills the Moon Spirit, causing the Ocean Spirit to fly into a vengeful rage. Aang gives himself over to the remaining Koi fish, with the Ocean Spirit harnessing the Avatar's power to become a giant kaiju. The Ocean Spirit monster then exacts its revenge on the Fire Nation for taking away its eternal partner, angrily searching for the Moon Spirit which will never return. However, Yue realizes that she can give back to the Moon Spirit what it gave to her as a baby.

Yue enters the sacred pool and attempts to transfer the Moon Spirit's power back into the lifeless body of its physical form. Given her strong spirituality and the power that resides in her, Yue succeeds, sacrificing herself and reviving the Moon Spirit, causing the moon to once again appear in the sky. The Ocean Spirit then returns Aang after Yue successfully restores spiritual balance to the world. Above her duties as a princess and priestess of the Northern Water Tribe, it was Yue's connection to the Moon Spirit that proved most vital to the story of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

1 Princess Yue Is Another Love-Interest Of Sokka’s

Sokka's character arc hinges on his link to Princess Yue.

While paling in comparison to Yue's connection to the Moon Spirit, the final way in which she is important to Avatar: The Last Airbender is through being another love interest of Sokka's. Throughout the original The Last Airbender show, Sokka's two love interests were Suki from Kyoshi Island and Yue of the Northern Water Tribe. What made part of the original show's writing so good regarding Sokka and Suki's relationship is how his connection with Yue tied into it, something Netflix's The Last Airbender seems to understand for future seasons.

The following paragraph contains minor spoilers for the original Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2.

Upon reuniting with Suki in the second season of the original animated show, Sokka is reluctant to embrace his feelings for her and acts incredibly overprotective and controlling. It is later revealed that Sokka is acting this way to protect Suki as he failed to protect Yue. While Yue and Sokka's relationship was brief, it proved to be important to Sokka's eventual further connection with Suki. This explains why the live-action show's inclusion of Yue and Sokka's relationship is important to the future of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender.

All episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1 are now streaming on Netflix.

Cast Gordon Cormier , Dallas Liu , Kiawentiio , Ian Ousley , Daniel Dae Kim , Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Release Date February 22, 2024 Where To Watch Netflix