Characters

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Name: Aang
Element: Avatar: Air Bender

First Appearance: Episode 1 Book 1

Bio: Aang is the current Avatar of this time. The Avatar is the bridge between the spirit world, and the human world. Aang is an Air Bender, and like all Air Benders, he was raised by monks in the air temples. He hails from the Southern Air Temple, which is specific to training boys. Both the Southern and Northern Air Temples train males, while the Eastern and Western train females. Aang's mentor was Monk Gyatso, but he was much like a father to Aang.

Normally, people are told of their Avatar identity when they turn 16. The monks saw the upcoming war, and in an effort to stop it, they told Aang that he was the Avatar when he was 12. They told him that he would have to leave Monk Gyatso and start training in the other elements, so he ran away with his Flying Bison, Appa. In the night, Aang and Appa ran into a storm that sent them into the ocean. Aang's Avatar State (a state of being that only Avatars can do, which allows the Avatar to do incredible things) kicked on and protected both of them in a shell of air. The shell not only protected them, but froze them in ice, stopping the aging of both Aang and Appa. One hundred years later, they were discovered by Katara and Sokka in Southern Water Tribe, and set free from the ice.

As a result of being raised by monks, Aang has a cheerful disposition, and he is a pacifist. Aang does not eat meat of any kind, and respects all life. Throughout the course of the show, the writers were very careful never to use the words "kill" "killed" "die" "dead" "death" etc, especially in Aang's dialogue. When it comes to violence or fighting, Aang generally does not attack unless he absolutely has to. His tactics involve running or dodging, using the attacks of his opponents against them, and if necessary he will airbend them away, but never injure them.

Name: Appa and Momo
Element: None

First Appearance: Episode 1 and 3 Book 1

Bio: Appa is Aang's flying Bison, and has been for many years. He is always there to assist Aang when he is needed. Momo is a flying Lemur who Aang found at the Air Temple with Katara and Sokka. It is believed that Momo is the last of his species, though it is never confirmed or denied. Momo gets his name from the Japanese word "peach" (桃). Near the end of his introduction episode, he brought a peach to Sokka, which is probably why Aang named him Momo. Momo is always getting into trouble and is a major part of the comic relief for the show (apart from Sokka of course.) :)

Name: Azula

Element: Fire Bending
First Appearance: Final Episode Book 1

Bio: Azula first appears at the end of season 1 when her father asks her to track down the Avatar since his son and brother are failures. Azula agrees, and begins her mission to find her brother, uncle, and capture the Avatar. Azula is a Fire Bending prodigy. Since she was little girl, she was a better bender than Zuko. She is one of the only Fire Benders to be seen using Lightning Bending, the only others have been Ozai and Iroh. Azula uses fear and manipulation to make people do what she wants them to do, she has an amazing ability to read people, and she can lie so well that even the physical changes in the body that normally happen to others don't happen to her. Azula has two best friends from her youth, Ty Lee and Mai, they seem to be the only people who legitimately get along with Azula by their own will, that says a lot about her.

Name: The Cabbage Guy
Element: Spontaneous Cabbage Regeneration (Not really) UNKNOWN

First Appearance: Episode 5 Book 1

Bio: The Cabbage Guy is not an official character of the Avatar series, but he is the only recurring background character throughout season 1 and 2. He is often seen with his cabbages, and they are almost always destroyed, yet he somehow gets more by his next scene. The Cabbage Guy loves his cabbages, and dislikes the Avatar because he is usually the cause of the cabbage's destruction.

Name: Iroh

Element: Fire Bending
First Appearance: Episode 1 Book 1

Bio: Iroh is the brother of the current Fire Lord, and the guardian of Zuko. He is a famous general of the Fire Nation for his initial invasion of Ba Sing Se. His invasion became a failure because his son Lu Ten died in the war. He is a very strong Fire Bender, and is one of the only who knows how to redirect lightning, he learned this skill by studying the Water Benders. Iroh is well connected with the Spirit World, because he respects life and actively seeks to please the spirits. Iroh is what you could call enlightened. He respects the other bending disciplines, and he is constantly cheerful and happy. Iroh is laid back, and he loves tea and tea making.

Between season 2 and 3, the voice actor for Iroh, Mako Iwamatsu, passed away, and he was replaced by Greg Baldwin.

Name:Katara

Element: Water Bending
First Appearance: Episode 1 Book 1

Bio:


Name: Mai
Element: None
First Appearance: Episode 3 Book 2

Bio:

Name: Fire Lord Ozai

Element: Fire Bending
First Appearance: Mixed appearances, official face reveal Episode 1 Book 3

Bio:

Name: Avatar Roku
Element: Avatar, Fire Bending

First Appearance: Episode 7 Book 1

Bio:

Name: Sokka

Element: None
First Appearance: Episode 1 Book 1

Bio:

Name: Suki

Element: None
First Appearance: Episode 4 Book 1

Bio:


Name: Toph Bei Fong

Element: Earth Bending
First Appearance: Episode 6 Book 2

Bio:

Name: Ty Lee

Element: None
First Appearance: Episode 3 Book 2

Bio:

Name: Admiral Zhao

Element: Fire Bending
First Appearance: Episode 3 Book 1

Bio:

Name: Zuko
Element: Fire Bending

First Appearance: Episode 1 Book 1

Bio:

The Four Elements

Water

Earth

Fire

Air

The four elements are very important to the Avatar world, they are the staple that keeps everything together. Each element corresponds to their respective nation: Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, Air Nomads. I'll speculate about the nations later, but for now I'll stick to the facts.


Manipulation of the elements in the Avatar world is called bending, so Waterbending, Firebending, etc.


Water is the element of change, the people of the Water Tribe are adaptive and very strong in their community. There are many different styles of Waterbending, Southern style, Northern style, even swamp style. In the opening credits, the Chinese character meaning water is paired with the character for goodness or virtue. These characters certainly speak for the element of water, which brings life and healing. The strongest of Waterbenders can change water between the three states (Liquid, solid, and gas.) According to Princess Yue of the Nothern Water Tribe, the first Waterbender was the moon. The ancient people saw how it pushed and pulled the water and learned how to do it themselves. Water and Fire are similar in the aspect that the origins of both were a solar object, more on that later.

Earth is the element of substance, the people of the Earth Kingdom are strong and brave. In the opening credits, the Chinese character for earth is paired with the character for strength or durability. Toph says that Earth is a stubborn element, it takes a strong person to be able to control it. The origins of Earthbending are much like Airbending, they both came from observing animals. In the episode "Cave of Two Lovers" it is revealed that the first Earthbenders Oma and Shu learned from Badgermoles who made their homes in the mountains. Toph later explains that Badgermoles are blind, but they learned to see with the earth.

Fire is the element of power, the people of the Fire Nation are strong willed and able to complete anything they put their mind to. Normal fire burns red, but extremely talented benders such as Azula can bend blue fire. Fire and Air are the only two elements that can be created from nothing. Both Earth and Waterbending require a source to bend. In the opening credits, the Chinese character for fire is paired with the character meaning intensity. Fire is a strong element controlled by emotion. Like Water, which can be manipulated to be water, ice, or vapor, Fire can change its form to become Lightning. Again, it takes a very powerful bender like Azula to change fire into this state. The original Firebenders learned to Firebend by observing the ancient dragons. Like Waterbenders who draw their power from the moon, Firebenders draw their power from the sun. The original Firebenders were the Sun Warriors, implying that they learned to Firebend not just from the dragons, but also from the sun.

Air is the element of freedom, the people of Air Nomads detached themselves from daily living to reach enlightenment, and they apparently had great senses of humor! In the opening credits, the Chinese character for air is paired with the character for peace and harmony. Air is a very important element in the show, as Aang, the main character, is the last Airbender alive, hence the shows title. The people of the Air Nomads are Monks, who have reached enlightenment and inner peace by detaching themselves from the world and worldly concerns. Like Fire, Air can be created from nothing. The original Airbenders learned to bend from the now extinct Sky Bison, or Flying Bison, but that's not the point. A central theme of Avatar is the war between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world. Because the Air Nomads had no formal military, they were easly wiped out by the Fire Nation during the first attack by Fire Lord Sozin.

That's Avatar 101. My next post will be about the characters. I'll do that when it's not so late. It's currently 12:10, and I can literally sit for hours ranting about the characters, which I know I'll do at this hour.

There were several quotes from the show in this post, if you can pin two of the non-obvious ones, I'll give you a shout out in another post.

First Post

I love Avatar The Last Airbender, it's my favorite show on TV.

I was reading about an upcoming spin off to the show, so I decided to start up a blog about it.

I'll be recapping each episode, pointing out important things, posting pictures and videos (hopefully).

I hope you enjoy.