Avatar: The Last Airbender

***Avatar: The Last Airbender***, known as ***Avatar: The Legend of Aang*** in some regions, is an American animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, with Aaron Ehasz as head writer. It aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons, from February 2005 to July 2008. *Avatar* is set in an Asiatic-like world in which some people can manipulate one of the four elements water, earth, fire, or air telekinetic variants of the Chinese martial arts known as "bending". The only individual who can bend all four elements, the "Avatar", is responsible for maintaining harmony between the world's four nations, and serves as the bridge between the spirit world and the physical world. The show is presented in a style that combines anime with American cartoons, and relies on the imagery of mainly East Asian culture, with some South Asian, New World, and Inuit and Sireniki influences.

The series is centered around the journey of 12-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last survivor of his nation, the Air Nomads, along with his friends Katara, Sokka, and later Toph, as they strive to end the Fire Nation's war against the other nations of the world. It also follows the story of Zuko exiled prince of the Fire Nation, seeking to restore his lost honor by capturing Aang, accompanied by his wise uncle Iroh later, that of his ambitious sister Azula.

*Avatar: The Last Airbender* was commercially successful and acclaimed by audiences and critics, who lauded its characterization, humor, cultural references, art direction, soundtrack, and themes. These include concepts rarely touched on in youth entertainment, such as war, genocide, imperialism, totalitarianism, and free choice. It won five Annie Awards, a Genesis Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Kids' Choice Award, and a Peabody Award. *Avatar* has often been regarded as one of the greatest animated television series of all time.

The extended *Avatar* franchise includes an ongoing comics series, a prequel novel series, an animated sequel series, and a live-action film, as well as an upcoming live-action remake of the show produced for Netflix. The complete series was released on Blu-ray in June 2018 in honor of the 10th anniversary of its finale, and was made available to stream on Netflix in the United States in May 2020, on CBS All Access in June 2020, and on Prime Video in January 2021.

On January 24, Nickelodeon along with other ViacomCBS entities announced the creation of Avatar Studios along with its co-creators. The main purpose is to further expand the universe's characters, culture, and mythologies. An untitled animated film is set to be in production late 2021.

## Setting of the show

Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a world where human civilization consists of four nations, named after the four classical elements: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. In each nation, certain people, known as "benders" (waterbenders, earthbenders, firebenders and airbenders), have the ability to telekinetically manipulate and control the element corresponding to their nation, using gestures based on Chinese martial arts. The Avatar is the only person with the ability to bend all four elements.

The Avatar is an international arbiter whose duty is to maintain harmony among the four nations, and act as a mediator between humans and spirits. When the Avatar dies, their spirit is reincarnated in a new body, who will be born to parents in the next nation in a set order known as the Avatar cycle: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. By tradition, a new Avatar will travel the world to learn all four bending arts, after which they will begin in earnest their role as global peacekeeper. The Avatar can enter a condition known as "the Avatar State", in which they temporarily gain the skills and knowledge of all their past incarnations. Although this is when the Avatar is most powerful, if the Avatar were ever to be killed while in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle would end and the Avatar would never again be reborn.

## Plot

A century ago, the young Avatar Aang, afraid of his new responsibilities, fled from his home and was forced into the ocean by a storm and encased himself in suspended animation in an iceberg near the South Pole. Shortly after, Fire Lord Sozin, the then-ruler of the Fire Nation, launched a world war to expand his nation's empire. Knowing that the Avatar must be an Air Nomad, he carried out a genocide against the Air Nomads with the help of a comet enhancing firebenders' power. One hundred years later, Katara and Sokka, teenagers of the Southern Water Tribe, accidentally discover Aang and revive him.

In the first season, Aang travels with Katara and Sokka to the Northern Water Tribe so he can learn waterbending and be prepared to defeat the Fire Nation. Prince Zuko, the banished son of the current Fire Lord Ozai, pursues them, accompanied by his uncle Iroh, hoping to capture the Avatar to restore his honor. Aang is also pursued by Zhao, a Fire Nation admiral aspiring to win Ozai's favor. When his navy attacks the Northern Water Tribe, Zhao kills the moon spirit; Yue, the princess of the tribe, sacrifices her life to revive it, and Aang drives off the enemy fleet.

In the second season, Aang learns earthbending from Toph Beifong, a blind twelve-year-old earthbending prodigy. Zuko and Iroh, now fugitives from the Fire Lord, become refugees in the Earth Kingdom, eventually settling in its capital Ba Sing Se. Both groups are pursued by Azula, Zuko's younger sister and a firebender prodigy. Aang's group travels to Ba Sing Se to seek the Earth King's support for an attack on the Fire Nation timed to an upcoming solar eclipse, during which firebenders will be powerless. Azula instigates a coup d'état, bringing the capital under Fire Nation control, and Zuko sides with his sister. Aang is mortally wounded by Azula, but he is revived by Katara.

In the third season, Aang and his allies invade the Fire Nation capital during the solar eclipse, but are forced to retreat. Zuko abandons the Fire Nation to join Aang and teach him firebending. Aang, raised by monks to respect all life, wrestles with the possibility that he will have to kill Ozai to end the war. When Sozin's comet returns, Aang confronts Ozai and uses his Avatar powers to strip Ozai of his firebending ability; meanwhile, Aang's friends liberate Ba Sing Se, destroy the Fire Nation airship fleet, and capture Azula. Zuko is crowned the new Fire Lord and ends the war.

### Episodes

The series consists of sixty-one episodes. The first episode—an-hour-long premiere—aired on February 21, 2005, on Nickelodeon. The series concluded with a two-hour television movie broadcast on July 19, 2008. Each season of the series is known as a "book", in which each episode is referred to as a "chapter". Each book takes its name from one of the elements Aang must master: Water, Earth, and Fire. The show's first two seasons each consists of twenty episodes and the third season has twenty-one. The entire series has been released on DVD in regions 1, 2 and 4.

As of May 2020, the complete series is available on Netflix in the United States. It became the most popular show on US Netflix within the first week of its release there, despite not being featured on the main page. The show broke the record for longest consecutive appearance on Netflix's daily top ten list, with 60 straight days on the list, one of only two shows in the top ten record holders that wasn't a Netflix original series as of July 2020. In New Zealand, the complete series is also available on Sky Television's streaming service Neon. Later in June 2020, the complete series became available on CBS All Access and later on Prime Video in January 2021.

## References

1. ↑  (2018) *The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows*. Rowman & Littlefield, page 50–51. ISBN 978-1538103739.
2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Vice`
3. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender creators return for live-action Netflix remake", *Polygon*.
4. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender Complete Series Coming to Blu-Ray This Summer".
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tassi, Paul. "'Avatar: The Last Airbender,' A 15 Year-Old Cartoon, Is Now Netflix's Most Popular Show" (en). *Forbes*.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Archived copy".
7. ↑ You must specify ***title =***  and ***url =***  when using {{cite web}}.. *www.amazon.com*.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Boy in the Iceberg". *Avatar: The Last Airbender*. IGN (February 21, 2005).
9. ↑ "Sozin's Comet". *Avatar: The Last Airbender*. TV Guide.
10. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender on DVD". TVShowsOnDVD.com (February 24, 2005).
11. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Netflix.
12. ↑ EDT, Samuel Spencer On 7/20/20 at 5:20 AM (2020-07-20). "'Avatar The Last Airbender' just broke a major Netflix record" (en). *Newsweek*.
13. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender: S1". Neon.
14. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender: S2". Neon.
15. ↑ "Avatar: The Last Airbender: S3". Neon.
16. ↑ You must specify ***title =***  and ***url =***  when using {{cite web}}.. *www.amazon.com*.

## External Links

* Avatar wiki
* Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:\_The\_Last\_Airbender