Avatar: The Legend of Aang
Created | Updated Nov 27, 2008
Avatar: The Legend of Aang, or Avatar: The Last Airbender as it is known in some other countries, is a cartoon which is described as anime but that is in wide dispute between fans worldwide. The programme is currently airing on ‘Nick’ (Nickeloden) but the DVD of the entire first series can be bought in the UK. Brief viewings of the first series were aired on ‘CITV’ but was then cancelled to be replaced by Oban Star Racers which is so similar to pod racing it’s absurd. The programme is set in an Asian influenced world which uses martial arts and elemental magic to capture the viewer’s imagination. Although the programme was originally created for an age group of 6-11 year olds but has been loved by both critics and teenagers alike. It was debuted on February the 21st 2005 although was expected to be released in November 2004.
Creation
Avatar: The Legend of Aang was co-created and produced by Micheal Dante DeMartino and Bryan Konietzko at ‘Nick’s’ Studios in California. The series was animated in South Korea and the third series is due to begin this year.
Premise
The show takes place in a fantasy world, home to humans, strange mythical creatures and spirits that constantly guide the show’s characters all are fantastically animated and beautifully designed. The Human civilization on this world is split into four different nations; the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads. Within each of these are a group of men and/or women that are called ‘Benders’ they have the unique and powerful ability to manipulate their native element. You have Fire Benders, Water Benders, Earth Benders and Air Benders. The Bending arts combine martial arts with elemental magic.
In each generation, one person is capable of Bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. When the Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into an unborn baby native in the next nation in the Avatar Cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire, and autumn for air. While legend holds that the Avatar must master the elements in order, starting with their native element, this can sometimes be compromised when the situation requires it. Learning to bend the element opposite one's native element is extremely difficult because opposing Bending arts are based on opposing fighting styles and doctrines.
The Avatar possesses a unique power that resides within him or her, called the Avatar State. It is a defence mechanism that empowers the Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars. When the Avatar enters this state, his or her eyes and mouth begin to glow (in Aang’s case his mouth, eyes and Air Bending tattoos glow). The glow is the combination of all the Avatar's previous incarnations focusing their energy through his or her body. However, if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist.
Through the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony and maintain world order. The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.
Plot Synopsis
A century prior to the series' opening, Aang, a 12-year-old Air Bender of the Air Nomads’ Southern Air Temple, learned from the elder monks that he was the Avatar. Usually, the Avatar is told of his or her true identity after turning sixteen; however, the monks feared that a war between the four nations was on the horizon and that soon the Avatar would be required to maintain balance and order in the world. Shortly thereafter, the monks decreed that Aang would be separated from his guardian, Monk Gyatso, and sent to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training.
Confused, frightened, and overwhelmed by these recent events and his new responsibilities as the Avatar, Aang fled from his home on his flying bison, Appa. While traveling over frigid southern ocean waters, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Aang unconsciously entered the Avatar State, and used Air Bending to protect Appa and himself by creating an air bubble around them. However, the air bubble quickly froze into a sphere of ice, forcing the two of them into a state of suspended animation.
The series opens one hundred years later, with the Fire Nation on the brink of victory in its imperialist war. The Water Tribes are in crisis — the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have left to wage war, leaving their home defenseless, while the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. The Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's conquest, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes of victory grow bleaker with each passing year.
Two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe — Katara, an inexperienced Water Bender, and her brother Sokka — discover and free Aang and Appa from the iceberg. Aang soon discovers to his horror that, during his absence, a century-long war has been waged. The very year he vanished, Fire Lord Sozin, took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the Fire Bending-enhancing powers of a passing comet to launch a war on the other nations. To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening ploy had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Air Benders slaughtered in the Fire Nation's effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving Aang as the last known Air Bender in existence.
As the Avatar, Aang's duty is to restore harmony and peace to the four nations. Along with his newly discovered friends Katara and Sokka, his flying bison Appa and his winged lemur Momo, and later the blind Earth Bender Toph, Aang travels the world to master all four elements. During his quest, he must constantly evade capture by the banished Prince Zuko and his sister, Princess Azula.
Although normally years of disciplined training are required to master a single Bending art, Aang must be a master of all four and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozin's Comet will give the Fire Benders the power to win the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will possess the ability to restore balance to the world.
But if you want to know more than you’ll just have to watch it won’t you?
