I get that the episode didn't make sense to the show back in 2005, but its theme could actually be re-worked and turned into a very good lesson for today's world.

Assuming the live-action version will drop some of the kid-show stuff, I think a slap to the face episode about tribalism leading to the death of everyone could be useful.

Hell, change the ending... Make the bug-vulture things actually kill everyone because they refused to get along at the end.

If that episode had a less-than-happy-ending it wouldn't be panned at all as being bad. It would be a stark reality-check to the characters that merely being the avatar isn't enough to break generational hate and prevent people from killing themselves to get back at their 'enemy'.