Whose Face Did Koh Steal? The Reason Why He Has A Grudge Against The Avatar

Lea Veloso
·4 min read
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Major spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender ahead. If you binge-watched the live-action adaptation of the hit animated series, you’ve probably noticed many similarities between the two. Maybe it even answered the question about whose face Koh stole in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender earlier than expected.

Avatar: The Last Airbender originated as an animated Nickelodeon show created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and premiered in 2005. The show has become a cult classic for it’s complex topics of war, genocide, and friendship while still being a child-friendly show. In fact, this isn’t the first time that there has been a live-action of the series. In 2012, M. Night Shyamalan released a movie adaptation The Last Airbender, which received negative reviews at the time of its release.

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Netflix announced that they would be making a live-action adaptation in 2019, with DiMartino and Konietzko as showrunners. The duo left the show due to creative differences between the studio in 2020, and Albert Kim was announced as showrunner.

Though the series relies heavily on the storylines from the animated series, it’s a completely different kind of adaptation. “We don’t start the show the way the animated series starts,” Kim told Entertainment Weekly. “That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series.” For another, “We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama,” he adds. “So I’m very curious to see what’ll happen in terms of reaction to that.”

“All of our writers are also fans of the original, so they drew upon their own personal experiences and the things that they love the best,” the showrunner says. “We made sure to include all those in the show.”

One of the original storylines that the writers implemented was Aang’s interaction with Koh in the Spirit World. So whose face did Koh steal and how did it connect with Aang and his journey to becoming the Avatar, master of all four elements? Read more to find out.

Who is Koh?

Koh is known as the face stealer in the Spirit World. A centipede-like creature, he has been in the Spirit World for a long time and has encountered the Avatar throughout different incarnates. He particularly has a grudge against Avatar Kuruk and Roku. Avatar Roku stole a figure pendant of Koh’s mother, the Mother of Faces, from Koh himself.

The Mother Of Faces gave people their identity and had the power to give people different faces. Meanwhile, her son gained the capability of stealing faces, which he uses for food and intimidating victims.

In the animated series, Koh steals people’s faces if they show emotion towards him, leading Aang to be emotionless throughout the whole interaction. However, in the live-action adaptation, Aang is the only person allowed to show emotion to Koh. Koh kidnaps Katara and Sokka who are put in a deep slumber before they are eaten and have their faces stolen. Aang must return the pendant to Koh for his friends’ safety.

Whose face did Koh steal?

When Aang confronts Koh in the Spirit World, Koh teases Aang with the face of a familiar person from the Avatar’s past. Koh stole the face of Ummi, a woman from the Northern Water Tribe who was engaged to Avatar Kuruk.

Due to Avatar Kuruk’s hedonistic lifestyle and duty to protect the physical and Spirit World, Umma fell victim to one of Koh’s tricks and he trapped her. Once Koh steals a face, it becomes part of his collection of faces and is part of his entity forever. Kuruk confronted Koh for stealing his lover’s face, but realized that he couldn’t kill her because if he killed Koh, then he would kill Ummi as well.

What is Avatar Kuruk’s connection to Aang?

Avatar Kuruk is Aang’s fourth predecessor as the Avatar. The waterbender was the Avatar before the reincarnates of Avatar Kyoshi and Avatar Roku.

While trying to reach the Avatar State, Aang talks to Kuruk about the Fire Nation’s siege of the Northern Water Tribe. Kuruk warns Aang about dark spirits that corrupted his soul, and that the Avatar should not have friends or trust other people in their journey. Aang retorts, saying that he’s nothing without Team Avatar.

This warning was also heeded by Kyoshi and Roku when Aang was contacting their respective spirits. Kyoshi unleashed the power of the Avatar State when the Fire Nation was taking over her home island, and warned Aang about why he needed to stay independent in order to restore balance in the world. Roku was also adamant about the Avatar’s dependence on friends when giving Aang the Mother of Faces pendant.

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