Avatar: The Last Airbender

Overview

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world that is home to humans and hybrid animals, adjacent to a parallel Spirit World. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Each has a distinct society, wherein people known as "benders" have the ability to manipulate and control the element of their nation using the physical motions of martial arts. The show's creators based each bending style on an existing Chinese martial art, leading to clear visual and physical differences in the techniques used by Waterbenders (tai chi), Earthbenders (Hung Ga kung fu), Firebenders (Northern Shaolin kung fu) and Airbenders (Baguazhang). In addition to these four types of bending, there are several minor subcategories of bending within them, including but not limited to: Metalbending, Sandbending (Earth); Lightning generation and redirection (Fire) and Bloodbending, Healing, Plantbending (Water).

At any given time, only one person in the world is capable of bending all four elements: the Avatar. When the Avatar dies, the Avatar spirit is reincarnated into the next one of the four nations in the Avatar Cycle: the Fire Nation, Air Nomads, Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, in order. An Avatar incarnation is born male or female, and is required to master each bending art in seasonal order from the age of sixteen, starting with its native land's element (Fire: Summer, Air: Autumn, Water: Winter, Earth: Spring). Additionally, the Avatar can enter a phase known as the Avatar State: normally a defense mechanism until placed under his/her control through mental discipline, wherein the current Avatar briefly gains the knowledge and abilities of all past Avatars. If an Avatar were to be killed while in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle would end and the Avatar would never again be reborn. The Avatar exists as an international arbiter, maintaining a relative equality among the nations while serving as mediator between humans and spirits.The origin of the Avatar and the Avatar cycle is revealed in the sequel series The Legend of Korra, as the result of a young man named Wan combining his soul with the spirit Raava to imprison her opponent, Vaatu. The sequel series also revealed that bending was originally bestowed by the immense Lion Turtles, before these giant creatures renounced their roles as mankind's protectors upon the creation of the Avatar.

Backstory

The backstory of the series (told largely through flashback sequences) extends backward to over 100 years before the time period in which the bulk of the series takes place, but these prelude events are revealed slowly in a fragmented, non-linear manner. More than a century before the opening events of the series, Fire Lord Sozin, ruler of the Fire Nation, planned a world war to expand his nation's territory and influence, but was prevented from carrying out his plans by Avatar Roku. When Roku died, however, Sozin saw his chance and proceeded with his plans.

After Roku's death, the Avatar was reincarnated as an Airbender, named Aang. Because of the threat of Sozin's war, Aang learned of his Avatar status when twelve years old. Aang, frightened of his new responsibilities and of separation from his mentor Gyatso, fled his home on his flying bison, Appa. The two were forced into the ocean by a storm, with Aang entering the Avatar State and encasing them both in an iceberg, in suspended animation, for one hundred years.

Sozin, knowing the nature of the Avatar's reincarnation cycle, carried out genocide of the Air Nomads during the passing of a comet that passes Earth every one hundred years and increases the Firebenders' power, with the comet later renamed after him as a result, and spent his remaining days searching for the eponymous "Last Airbender". As the Fire Nation's hundred year war continued, Sozin was succeeded as Fire Lord by his son, Azulon, who in turn passed the title to his youngest son, Ozai, who becomes the primary antagonist of the series.

Season One (Book One: Water)

Katara, a fourteen-year-old Southern Tribe Waterbender, and her older brother, Sokka, find and revive Aang and Appa. Aang learns of the war occurring in his absence, and the siblings join him to reach the Northern Water Tribe at the North Pole, so that he and Katara can learn Waterbending from a master. Aang's return attracts the attention of prince Zuko, the exiled son of Ozai, who pursues the three thereafter. Aang is also pursued by Zhao, a Fire Nation militant who intends to win Ozai's favor and rob Zuko of his redemption.

En route to the North Pole, Aang meets the Kyoshi Warriors (established by an eponymous previous Avatar) and his childhood friend, King Bumi, attempts to learn Firebending from the deserter Firebending master, Jeong Jeong, and gains a traveling companion in a winged lemur he names Momo. Aang discovers the genocide of his people while visiting the Southern Air Temple. During the winter solstice, Aang meets his predecessor, Avatar Roku, who was a firebender.

At the Northern Water Tribe, Aang and Katara learn advanced Waterbending from its Master, Pakku, while Sokka falls in love with Princess Yue, the tribal chief's daughter. Zhao lays siege to the Northern Water Tribe, seizing the mortal forms of the Ocean and Moon Spirits, the source of waterbending, and thus causing a lunar eclipse. Zhao kills the moon spirit to render the Waterbenders powerless. Aang uses his Avatar State and combines with the Ocean Spirit to drive off the enemy's fleet while Princess Yue sacrifices her life to revive the Moon Spirit. When Ozai hears of Iroh's resistance to Zhao, he sends his daughter, Azula, to capture Iroh and Zuko.

Season Two (Book Two: Earth)

After leaving the Northern Water Tribe, Aang continues to master Waterbending under Katara's tutelage as the group searches for an Earthbending teacher. Their search brings them to Toph Beifong, a twelve-year-old blind tomboy and Earthbending prodigy who wants independence from her upper-class family. Pursued by Azula, Zuko and Iroh lead new lives in the Earth Kingdom, first as wanderers and later as refugees in the capital of Ba Sing Se. At a library guarded by the spirit Wan Shi Tong, Aang and his group learn that an imminent solar eclipse could allow them to stop the Fire Nation before Sozin's Comet arrives. Their journey to Ba Sing Se to inform the Earth King of this is complicated when Appa is kidnapped. At the city, they find the Earth King Kuei and Ba Sing Se manipulated by Long Feng, the leader of the Dai Li secret police.

After Aang's group finds Appa and exposes Long Feng, Toph is captured, but escapes by "Metalbending", while Aang attempts to consciously access the Avatar state. The Dai Li join Azula to instigate a coup d'état of Ba Sing Se; and Zuko, having tried to ignore his past obsession, relapses when the Avatar appears to rescue Katara. As Aang tries to enter the Avatar state, Azula nearly kills him. With Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom now under Fire Nation rule, the group escapes thanks to Iroh, who is imprisoned for betraying the Fire Nation, and Kuei goes into hiding.

Season Three (Book Three: Fire)

Aang recovers from a long coma to find his friends and allies disguised as soldiers on a Fire Nation ship, preparing invasion of the Fire Nation. Despite receiving credit for the Avatar's apparent death, Zuko regrets his role therein. Although the invasion meets great success at first, Aang and his friends are unable to find Ozai and are forced to retreat with many of their allies captured. At the same time, having learned of his father's intention to destroy the Earth Kingdom at the time of Sozin's Comet, Zuko leaves the palace to teach Aang Firebending.

As the comet approaches, Aang becomes reluctant to kill Ozai, and goes alone to consult his predecessors' spirits. Katara and the others unsuccessfully search for Aang, and find the newly escaped Iroh, joined by the other members of a secret society called the Order of the White Lotus: Bumi, Master Pakku, Jeong-Jeong, and Master Piandao (a master swordsman who taught Sokka). Together, the Order of the White Lotus liberates Ba Sing Se. Sokka, Toph, and Kyoshi Warrior Suki hinder the Fire Nation's airships, while Zuko and Katara prevent Azula from becoming the new Fire Lord. As Sozin's Comet arrives, Aang confronts Ozai, but finds himself in a losing battle until Ozai mistakenly re-establishes Aang's connection to the Avatar State. Thus enabled, Aang strips Ozai of his firebending powers, instead of killing him.

Soon after, Zuko is crowned the new Fire Lord and initiates an armistice. The series ends in a meeting of all the protagonists at Ba Sing Se in Iroh's tea shop, the Jasmine Dragon, where Aang and Katara hug and then kiss beneath the sunset. The camera then zooms up and into the sunset, displaying the words "The End" with their Chinese counterparts above them.

Characters

Production

Avatar: The Last Airbender was co-created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California. Animation work was mostly done by three animation studios in South Korea: JM Animation, DR Movie, and MOI Animation. According to Bryan Konietzko, the program was conceived in the spring of 2001 when he took an old sketch of a balding, middle-aged man and re-imagined the character as a child. Konietzko drew the character herding bison in the sky, and showed the sketch to Mike DiMartino. At the time, DiMartino was studying a documentary about explorers trapped in the South Pole. Konietzko described their early development of the concept:

The co-creators successfully pitched the idea to Nickelodeon vice president and executive producer Eric Coleman just two weeks later.

The series was first revealed to the public in a teaser reel at Comic-Con 2004, and aired February 21, 2005. In the United States, the first two episodes of the series were shown together in a one-hour premiere event. A second twenty-episode season ran from March 17, 2006, through December 1. A third and final season, beginning September 21, 2007, featured twenty-one episodes rather than the usual twenty. The final four episodes were packaged as a two-hour movie.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is notable for borrowing extensively from East Asian art and mythology to create its universe. The series' character designs are heavily influenced by Chinese art, history, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, and Yoga. Traditional Chinese calligraphy styles represent nearly all the writing in the series. For each instance of calligraphy, an appropriate style is used, ranging from seal script (more archaic) to clerical script. The show employed a cultural consultant, Edwin Zane, and calligrapher Siu-Leung Lee as consultants for the series' cultural influences. The choreographed martial art bending moves were affected by Asian cinema. In an interview, Bryan revealed that, "Mike and I were really interested in other epic 'Legends & Lore' properties, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but we knew that we wanted to take a different approach to that type of genre. Our love for Japanese anime, Hong Kong action and kung fu cinema, yoga, and Eastern philosophies led us to the initial inspiration for Avatar: The Last Airbender."

All music and sound used in the series was done by Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who formed The Track Team. They experimented with use of a wide range of different instruments, the guzheng, pipa, and duduk, to compose background music.

The term "Avatar" comes from Sanskrit (अवतार), wherein means "descent"; its roots are ava, "down," and tri, "to pass". In the Hindu scriptures, avatar signifies the mortal incarnation of a god (usually Vishnu). The Chinese characters apparent at the top of the show's title card mean "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world". According to the plot, Aang unknowingly revealed he was the Avatar when by choosing four toys out of thousands, each of which were the childhood toys of previous Avatars. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a similar test for reincarnations of a Tulku Lama. In Magic and Mystery in Tibet, Alexandra David-Neel writes that "a number of objects such as rosaries, ritualistic implements, books, tea-cups, etc., are placed together, and the child must pick out those which belonged to the late tulku, thus showing that he recognizes the things which were theirs in their previous life". Each successor is born within a week of the previous Avatar, and is expected to show signs of continuity.

Avatar: The Last Airbender draws on the four classical elements for its bending arts: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Although each has its own variation, most ancient philosophies incorporate these four elements: examples include the classical Hindu, Buddhist, and Greek elemental traditions. In the show's opening, each element is accompanied by two Chinese characters: an ancient Chinese seal script character on the left representing the element being shown and a modern Chinese character on the right describing some feature of the element. The character 水 (pinyin: shuǐ), which stands for water, is shown with 善 (pinyin: shàn), which means good and benevolent. The character 土 (pinyin: tǔ), which stands for earth, is shown with 強 (pinyin: qiáng), which means strong and powerful. The character 火 (pinyin: huǒ), which stands for fire, is shown with 烈 (pinyin: liè), which means intense and fierce. Finally, the character 氣 (pinyin: qì), which stands for air, is shown with 和 (pinyin: hé), which means peace/peaceful and harmony/harmonious.

In addition to the use of four classical elements in the series, the fighting styles associated with each element are derived from different styles of Chinese martial arts, for which the film-makers employed Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a consultant. Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected. T'ai chi was used for "Waterbending" in the series, which focuses on alignment, body structure, breath, and visualization. Hung Gar was used for "Earthbending" in the series, and was chosen for its firmly rooted stances and powerful strikes to present the solid nature of earth. Northern Shaolin, which uses strong arm and leg movements was used to represent "Firebending". Ba Gua, which uses dynamic circular movements and quick directional changes, was used for "Airbending". The only exception to these styles is Toph, who can be seen practicing a Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style.

Ratings

When the series debuted, it was rated the best animated television series in its demographic; new episodes averaged 3.1 million viewers each. Many people regard it as a major animated series, and it has gained somewhat of a cult following. A one-hour special showing of "The Secret of the Fire Nation" which aired on September 15, 2006, consisting of "The Serpent's Pass" and "The Drill", gathered an audience of 5.1 million viewers. According to the Nielsen Media Research, the special was the best performing cable television show airing in that week. In 2007, Avatar: The Last Airbender was syndicated to more than 105 countries worldwide, and was one of Nickelodeon's top rated programs. The series was ranked first on Nickelodeon in Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Colombia.

The four-part series finale, Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle, received the highest ratings of the series. Its premiere averaged 5.6 million viewers, 95% more viewers than Nickelodeon had received in mid-July 2007. During the week of July 14, it ranked as the most-viewed program for the under-14 demographic. Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle also appeared on iTunes' top ten list of best-selling television episodes during that same week. Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle's popularity affected online media as well; "Rise of the Phoenix King", a Nick.com online game based on Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle, generated almost 815,000 game plays within three days. IGN listed the complete series as 35th in its list of Top 100 Animated TV Shows.

Art

Dark Horse Comics released an art book titled Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Art of the Animated Series, on June 2, 2010, which contains 184 pages of the original art and creation behind the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series.

Comics

Several comic book short stories were published in Nickelodeon Magazine, and on June 15, 2011, Dark Horse released a collection of these and new comics in a single volume, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Lost Adventures.

Dark Horse also publishes a graphic novel series by Gene Yang that continues Aang's story after the Hundred Years' War. Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise, published in three volumes in 2012, is about the fate of the Fire Nation colonies that eventually become The Legend of Korra's United Republic. A second set of three comic books, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search, focuses on Zuko and Azula and the fate of their mother, Ursa. The third set, Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift, shifts the focus to Aang and the process of creating Republic City, as well as Toph's relationship with her family.

Promotion and merchandising

Avatar: The Last Airbender's success has led to some promotional advertising with third-party companies, Burger King and Upper Deck Entertainment. Avatar: The Last Airbender-themed roller coasters at Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America and one formerly at Kings Island also appeared. During the show's runtime, Nickelodeon published two special issues of Nick Mag Presents dedicated entirely to the show. Various members of the Avatar: The Last Airbender staff and cast appeared at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International convention, while Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko appeared with Martial Arts Consultant Sifu Kisu at the Pacific Media Expo on October 28, 2006. Avatar: The Last Airbender also has its own line of T-shirts, LEGO playsets, toys, a trading card game, a cine-manga, and three video games, as well as an MMO.

The Fisher-Price-produced action figure toy line generated some controversy with its exclusion of any female characters. Mattel came to release information stating that they have taken account of Katara's increased role within the program, and that she would be included in the figure assortment for a mid-2007 release. The figure ultimately went unreleased, however, as the entire line was canceled before she could be produced.

Nickelodeon executives have since released optimistic plans for upcoming marketing strategies in regards to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami openly stated her belief that the franchise "could become their Harry Potter".

Video games

A video game trilogy about Avatar: The Last Airbender has been created. Avatar: The Last Airbender, the video game, was released on October 10, 2006. Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth was released on October 16, 2007. Avatar: The Last Airbender – Into the Inferno was released on October 13, 2008. The three games were loosely based on seasons one, two and three, respectively. Players can select characters and complete quests to gain experience and advance the storyline. The games were met with mixed to positive reviews (the ratings improved with each game), and the games did extremely well commercially; for example, Avatar: The Last Airbender was THQ's top selling Nickelodeon game in 2006 and even reached Sony CEA's "Greatest Hits" status.

Avatar: Legends of the Arena, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, was launched on September 25, 2008, by Nickelodeon. Each user was able to create their own character, choose a nation, and interact with others across the globe. Since the 2012 holiday season, the game's servers have been closed.

Film

The first season of the show became the basis for the 2010 live-action film The Last Airbender, written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It was intended as the first movie of a trilogy, with each of the three films to be based upon one of the three television seasons, but the film's reception was overwhelmingly negative from both critics and series fans alike, earning it a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and five Razzies in 31st Golden Raspberry Awards of 2011, including Worst Picture. The film originally shared the title of the television series, but it was changed to simply The Last Airbender because producers feared it would be confused with the James Cameron film Avatar. The film stars Noah Ringer as Aang, Nicola Peltz as Katara, Jackson Rathbone as Sokka, Dev Patel as Zuko, and Shaun Toub as Iroh.

Sequel (The Legend of Korra)

The Legend of Korra, a sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, was announced at the Comic-Con in San Diego on July 22, 2010. It is written and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators and producers of the original series. Initially titled Avatar: Legend of Korra, then The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra, it takes place seventy years after the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The first season of 12 episodes aired from April to June 2012, and a second season of 14 episodes aired from September 2013 to November 2013; a third season of 13 episodes aired from June 2014 to August 2014, and a fourth and final season of 13 episodes aired from October 2014 to December 2014.

The series' protagonist is Korra, a 17-year-old girl from the Southern Water Tribe and the incarnation of the Avatar after Aang's death. The character was partly inspired by Avatar Kyoshi of the original series, whom the creators say was popular among fans. To avoid repetition of Aang's adventures during the original series, the creators wanted to root the show in one place: Republic City. A concept drawing of the city, released with the announcement of the series, shows the city's design as inspired by Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manhattan, and Vancouver with a steampunk vibe. In the show's first season, Korra has to learn airbending from Tenzin, the youngest son of Aang and Katara, and contend with Amon's anti-bender revolution taking place in the city. The show's second season also provides the origins of the Avatar Cycle.