Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy

:For the scrapbook with a similar title that Iroh leaves to Zuko, see Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy of the Fire Nation.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy is a hardcover book published by Insight Editions. It features Aang looking back on his life after the Hundred Year War through stories, along with various mementos such as posters, maps, and cards, a collection which he passes down to his airbending son, Tenzin. It was released on October 13, 2015.
== Description ==
Aang, the much-loved hero of Nickelodeon's hit animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, takes readers on an exciting and interactive journey through his thrilling world.
Earth. Air. Fire. Water. These are the four nations that lived in harmony until the Fire Nation attacked. For the next hundred years, war raged across the globe. It was believed that all inhabitants from the Air Nation had perished. Then, a girl and her brother discovered a twelve-year-old boy frozen in an iceberg. His name: Aang. He is the Avatar, the master of all four elements. Together Aang and his friends went on to save the world! Now a man, Aang looks back on these adventurous years—from being found in the ice to fighting epic battles to negotiating peace. This is Aang's story, his mementos, and keepsakes. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy is the collection that Aang passes down to his son Tenzin, who will one day be a master Airbender, too. Readers will relish Aang's heroic tales and the posters, clippings, cards, and maps he gathered along the way!
== Contents ==
The book begins with a letter written by Avatar Aang to his only airbending son Tenzin, then five years old. In it, he tells him to prepare for an upcoming transition in his life, the time when he will be busy with his friends, studies and, jokingly, girls, all of which will result in Tenzin spending lesser time with his father. He further states that through hard work, friendship, and love, he can accomplish any hurdle. The letter then takes a slight serious approach, as Aang mentions that it is also time for his son to learn something very important - other than his father, he is the only living airbender in the world, first to be born after over a century, and thus, at some point, he will also have to lead the Air Nation. Additionally, Aang explains his status as the Avatar and that, upon his death, he will be reincarnated into another bender, placing his son in charge of mentoring his successor. He finally concludes the letter by expressing hope that this book will provide Tenzin some insight into his life and that he and Katara will be always be proud of him.
=== Hundred Year War ===
Aang begins to explain the Hundred Year War by narrating the story of its origin. He explains how Roku and Sozin's friendship began to falter as the latter planned to "share the prosperity of the Fire Nation" by expanding the empire, to which Aang's predecessor vehemently objected, which led to the Fire Lord's greatest act of destruction, eradicating the Air Nomads through the use of a comet. Aang then explains how the Avatar resurfaced during the reign of Fire Lord Ozai and, after receiving the unknown art of energybending, managed to strip him of his firebending, ending the war altogether, with Ozai's son, Prince Zuko, being crowned the new Fire Lord, promising to begin a new era of love and peace.
=== Team Avatar ===
Aang mentions how he would not have been able to end the war if Katara, Sokka, Toph, and later Zuko, had not joined his cause. He tells Tenzin a brief history of each member of Team Avatar and their role in ending the Hundred Year War.
=== The Four Nations ===
==== Air Nomads ====
Aang tells Tenzin about Air Nomads, the almost lost nation to which he and his son belong. He speaks about the air temples and their importance during his life prior to Hundred Year War. He focuses on the Southern Air Temple, where he used to reside prior to the genocide, and subsequently explains the art of airbending, the monks, and their philosophy.
==== Water Tribes ====
He then continues with the Water Tribes, explaining their history, their different cultures, and the art of waterbending. The Avatar expands on the skills of healing and bloodbending, the Moon and the Ocean Spirits, and the sacrifice of Princess Yue to save Tui.
==== Earth Kingdom ====
Aang then shifts his focus to the Earth Kingdom, talking about its most prominent cities and subsequently explains the art of earthbending and its specialized techniques, such as sandbending and metalbending. He also makes mention of the Jasmine Dragon and the Kyoshi Warriors.
==== Fire Nation ====
Lastly, Aang talks about the Fire Nation, beginning with its resources before moving to the Fire Days Festival, the Fire Nation Capital, and the art of firebending. He also mentions the Ember Island Players and The Boy in the Iceberg.
=== Game Time! ===
Aang states that he had plenty of good moments and adventures with whoever he shared with. These included playing games like airball, Pai Sho, and otter penguin sledding.
=== Katara's letter to Tenzin ===
Katara was asked by Aang to write a letter to Tenzin as well. She starts off by hoping that when Tenzin becomes older, he would feel the pride of the Air Nomadic heritage. She reveals that when she and Sokka found Aang in the iceberg, he was carefree. However, upon realizing that he was the Avatar, he blamed himself for the horrors that descended upon the world after he froze himself. However, one of her greatest joys in her life was when Aang developed from a joyful, playful boy to an amazing, thoughtful, powerful, and wise man, though he retained his joyfulness and his love for games. However, he also had to carry the burden of the last airbender. This was lifted from him when Tenzin was born, much to her and Aang's joy. She assures him that his father will guide him through every step of the way and wishes Tenzin carefree joys of youth, knowledge, and strength to relish the power and responsibility of being an airbender. Katara concludes the letter by saying that she and Aang will always be proud of him.
=== The Spirit World ===
Aang proceeds to explains the Spirit World to Tenzin, as he wants him to realize that being the Avatar is not only about power and fighting, during wartime, but also about achieving spiritual enlightenment, during peacetime. He talks about some of the features of the Spirit World that he learned, prior to writing this book, such as its landscape, the spirit portal, and the Fog of Lost Souls.
=== The final battle ===
Avatar Aang, once again, credits his friends for helping him end the Hundred Year War, turning the darkest moment of their history into a beacon of hope for the world's future. Additionally, he briefly tells the story of his final battle against Ozai, describing how, in the midst of the battle, he entered the Avatar State and managed to corner the Fire Lord to strip him of his firebending instead of ending his life, as he was taught by the monks to respect all forms of life.
=== Lion turtle ===
Lastly, Aang credits the lion turtle he encountered, who enlightened him to the ways of energybending before he took on Ozai, calling it the unsung hero of the war. He further explains that the lion turtle is an enormous ancient being that has existed since the beginning of time and the one he encountered was the last of its kind since the rest of them were hunted and killed thousands of years before the war.
=== Final letter ===
The airbender ends the book with another letter, expressing hope that Tenzin enjoyed the stories, and strongly wishes that he learns something from them before further asking him to use the information wisely. He tells his son that he and Katara will always love him and wishes him a peaceful and fun life.
=== Other contents ===
* A photo of the grown-up members of Team Avatar together.
* A world map.
* The blueprints of the airbender staff.
* A waterbending scroll.
* Postcards belonging to the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation.
* Letters from Toph and Sokka. The former's letter depicts the story of her first encounter with Aang, while the latter's depicts the story of his role in taking down the Fire Nation fleet during Sozin's Comet.
* The poster of the Fire Days Festival.
* The Fire Nation Royal Family tree.
* A different poster of the play The Boy in the Iceberg than the one shown in the animated series.
* The wanted posters of Aang, Zuko, Toph, Iroh, the Blue Spirit, and Jeong Jeong.
* A copy of the missing poster for Appa.
* Field Guide to Local Fauna.
* Photos of Appa and Momo.
* A family photo of Aang, Katara, and their young children Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin.
* A photo of Aang with Tenzin in his airbender clothes.
== Production notes ==
=== Character revelations ===
* Prior the formation of the air temples, the Air Nomads used to represent themselves by using a flag. The flag was yellow-colored with the Air Nomad insignia at its centre.
* King Bumi died prior to Aang writing this book.
* By the time the letters were written by Aang, the Kyoshi Warriors were still active, with Suki retaining her position as the leader, while Ty Lee was still part of the group.
=== Series continuity ===
* Aang was aware of existence of the spirit portals and the Fog of Lost Souls. Years after Aang's death, in "Darkness Falls", Tenzin would explain the same to Kya and Bumi when the three siblings were in the fog themselves while searching for Jinora.
=== Goofs ===
* In the comic that depicted the history of the Hundred Year War, the scene where Sozin was standing before the Fire Army was placed before the scene where Roku begged for Sozin's help before the latter's betrayal. In the animated series, the former scene was showed after the latter.
* In the picture that depicted Hama bloodbending Katara, the former's hair and clothes were different. In the book, her hair has shades of black and white and is in a bun, and she is wearing a tunic with an undershirt, while in the animated series, it was completely gray and loose with a bun, and she wore a brown dress.
* The picture that depicted Aang redirecting lightning toward the sky showed Ozai directing lightning toward Aang while the Avatar was redirecting lightning simultaneously. However, in the animated series, Aang redirected lightning while Ozai watched.
== Trivia ==
* As per the chronological timeline of the Avatar universe, this book was written in the year 124 AG.
* In this book, in the picture of the Southern Air Temple sanctuary, the statues of Kyoshi and Kuruk are shown. In the episode "The Southern Air Temple", in which the sanctuary first appeared, the statue next to that of Roku was not of Kyoshi.
* The waterbending scroll that is among the souvenirs collected by Aang for this book is not the one that belonged to Katara, since she had given it to Wan Shi Tong before the owl spirit took back his library to the Spirit World.
== References ==
== See also ==
* List of Avatar books
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es:Avatar: El Último Maestro Aire: El Legado
ru:Аватар: Легенда об Аанге: Наследие
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