for the 12th anniversary of avatar: the last airbender’s finale episode, here’s an analysis/interpretation thread that no one asked for on “the last agni kai.” (from a music educator’s perspective):

for reference i’m a percussionist that teaches it part time and was in college to become a music professor (but dropped out). this is just my interpretation based on notes i took when it listening to it for today’s post. feel free to add on or qrt with your own interpretations!!

so, as a percussionist, i feel it necessary to start with what stood out most to me: minimal, very simplistic percussion! already this is very unique for a fight scene, especially a finale episode level battle like this one.

percussion-heavy writing is generally loud, action-packed and energetic regardless of the emotion. this makes it ideal for battle scores in movies and television (think portals from endgame, which has a lot of prominent percussion parts). why does this matter, though?

the last agni kai is meant to be anything but a typical finale battle scene. it won’t be a celebrated victory, because all the possible outcomes will cost a heavy price. it’s a last resort, and therefore full of complex emotion. the focus isn’t on action (percussion).

the second thing i noticed was that it was written in Eb minor. ernst pauer, an austrian composer and pianist from the 1800s, once called Eb minor the “darkest, most somber key of all. but it is never used.” that’s because Eb minor was quite rare in classical music.

an example to reference the power of the key’s emotions is a piece i studied: sergei prokofiev’s sixth symphony. it was written in 1947 to honor the victory and loss in WWII. he used the Eb minor key to express the terrible sacrifixes and tragedies that victory cost.

zuko and azula’s agni kai is not a battle to celebrate; it’s the tragic result of their pain and abuse and how they were pit against each other their entire lives. it’s sorrowful, it’s somber, it’s everything an Eb minor is meant to make you feel.

then, through most of the piece, we hear these rhythmic crescendos and decrescendos (getting louder and then getting softer repeatedly). i interpret this to symbolize a few different things, starting with fire itself. like the music, fire surges and dwindles.

but it also made me think of azula and zuko’s childhood and home life in the fire nation. their environment was always unstable; their relationship with ozai particular. by favoring azula and hating zuko, there was already a severe imbalance.

and like the music’s growing and fading, zuko and azula’s childhood was filled with moments of joy, and those of harrowing fear or pain. combined with their imbalanced (and abusive, in ozai’s case) family relationships, the environment was far from the stability children need.

it also seemed representative of zuko and azula’s relationship with each other. in the show, we see hints of what could be actual sibling love between the pair. but contempt or hatred almost always follows. it’s as if their love ebbs (crescendos) and flows (decrescendos).

but most obvious of all, to me, was that it felt like breathing. the crescendos (inhale) and the decrescendos (exhale). it was as if the music itself was exhausted, just like azula and zuko, and was breathing heavily because of it.

their final battle was the result of a long, tedious tension growing between them. it was the culmination of years of being neglected, abused and pit against each other in the process. it was meant to be exhausting, not energetic like typical fight scenes.

later, when azula directs her lightning at katara, we hear what almost sounds like a reprise of the avatar theme. the chords start out following a similar progression, which connected it all to zuko’s destiny with the avatar.

in that moment, when he chose to save katara, he was finally sealing his new destiny with the avatar and making good change, and severing any old ties he may have had with his past and the destiny he thought he was meant to pursue.

but the opposite can be said for azula here. with zuko out of the game, the music becomes chaotic and harsh. this was really interesting to me because i felt it gave us a look at what would happen to azula if she had really lost zuko.

without him, she loses her final connection to her humanity. killing him would be the straw breaking the camel’s back, so to speak. and like we see in the finale, she would spiral out of control, only it would be unstoppable.

the music ends abruptly before transferring into the next piece, with no actual resolution to the chaotic sounds. to me this implied that azula’s story wasn’t over; there was still more to be told (even if we never see all of it).

i feel that the lack of conclusion implied her possibility for redemption. it wasn’t over, she wasn’t totally gone - there was still a chance for her.

final thoughts: “the last agni kai” is a really unique piece to be used in a final battle, and that’s what makes it so powerful. it’s a fight that focuses on the emotion and inner turmoil of zuko and azula, but not so much the physical confrontation itself.

and the way it’s written is reflective of their entire lives and how it’s all built up to this one final, tragic yet inevitable battle with no happy ending.