Avatar: The Last Airbender
From Nickelodeon
''Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show airing on Nickelodeon since February 2005. It is an American cartoon series set in a fantastic world of martial arts and elemental magic. The artwork of the series is inspired by Japanese anime. It follows the journeys of Aang, the successor to a long line of Avatars, and his friends Katara and Sokka. A live action movie based on the series will be released in 2010.
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[edit] Show Details
In a lost age, the world is divided into four nations: Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. Within each nation, there is a remarkable order of men and women called the "Benders" who can learn to harness their inborn talent and manipulate their native element. Bending is a powerful form combining martial art and elemental magic.
In each generation, only one Bender is capable of controlling all four elements. That Bender is the Avatar. The Avatar is the spirit of the world manifested in human form. When the Avatar dies, it reincarnates into the next nation in the cycle. Starting with the mastery of his or her native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements. Throughout the ages, the countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony.
About one hundred years prior to the story, during the Air period of the Avatar cycle, the Firebenders attacked. Just as the world needed the Avatar the most, he mysteriously vanished. A hundred years later, the Fire Nation is near final victory in its ruthless war of world domination. The Air Nomads were destroyed, the Air Temples ravished, and all Airbender monks eradicated. The Water Tribes were raided and driven to the brink of extinction. The Earth Kingdom remains and fights a hopeless war against the Fire Nation. Many believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads and that the cycle is broken.
In the desolated South Pole, a lone Water tribe struggles to survive. It is here that the village's last remaining Waterbender Katara and her warrior brother Sokka rescue a strange 12-year-old boy named Aang who has been suspended in hibernation in an iceberg. The tribe soon discovers that Aang is not only an Airbender--the extinct race no one has seen in a century--but also the long lost Avatar. Now Katara and Sokka must safeguard the child Avatar in his journey to master all four elements and save the world from the Fire Nation.
[edit] Influences
The show is heavily influenced by the style of Japanese anime, with unanatomically large eyes. It also draws on the classical Greek elements rather than the five Asiatic elements.
[edit] Characters
- → Main article: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender characters.
- Aang is the last Airbender and the only known survivor of the Air Nomads. A fun-loving kid and reluctant hero, Aang awoke from a hundred-year catatonic sleep and found himself in an unfamiliar war-torn world. Aang's destiny as the Avatar is to end the war and restore order. Unfortunately, Aang is only a 12-year-old kid and has not yet learned to master the other three elements. Aang must find a way to learn Waterbending, Earthbending and Firebending, become the master of all four elements, and stop the Fire Nation.
- Katara is a 14-year-old Waterbender who, along with her brother, found Aang in an iceberg. She has lost her mother Kanna to the fire nation when she was a young girl,her father Hakoda went to fight in the war however, Katara is mature beyond her age and determined to end the war--or at least never stop trying. Being the only surviving Waterbender of her tribe, Katara has no one to teach her how to waterbend. Katara practices rudimentary waterbending on her own everyday and longs to find a master Waterbender to teach her, so she can live up to her potential and become a great Waterbender in order to save her tribe. Katara is the self-appointed caretaker of the young Avatar and the leader of the group--not the mention the older girl who has become Aang's crush.
- Sokka is Katara's 15-year-old warrior brother. Sokka is loyal, courageous, proud, headstrong, and very protective of his sister. Unlike Aang and Katara, Sokka does not use or trust "magic" (his word for bending.) He prefers to use strength, determination, ingenuity and his boomerang (given to him by his father) to get out of troubles.
- Prince Zuko is a disgraced 16-year-old prince of the Fire Nation. When the story begins, he has been banished to the South Pole and is never allowed to return home unless he can fulfill a seemingly impossible mission: find and capture the Avatar. (Of course, no one has anticipated the lost Avatar would ever return, so Zuko's banishment was intended to be permanent.) During his two years in exile, he has trained himself to become a powerful Firebender. Focused, driven, and honorable, but very bitter, Zuko is obsessed with what he believes is his destiny: capturing the Avatar, in order to redeem his honor and be accepted back by his father, the Fire Lord Ozai.
- Avatar Roku is the previous Avatar before Aang that informs him of a coming comet, Sozen's, that will supply the Fire Nation with so much thermal power they could conquer the rest of the nations. Apparently, this comet was also used as a deadly first strike one century ago, and began the war.
- Momo is Aang's pet lemur. Lemurs are smart, trainable small creatures, capable of performing many simple human tasks. (Note: Lemurs cannot talk and do not have special abilities or powers.) In episode three, "The Southern Air Temple", Aang found Momo and decided to keep it as a reminder that his people still live in them, as winged lemurs were once a favorite pet for Air Nomad children.
- Uncle/General Iroh, Prince Zuko's uncle, advisor, and a retired general. He would rather lounge and eat in his old age than fight in the war but is a strong opponent. Iroh has more to him than meets the eye. First Appeared in "The Avatar Returns".
- Commander Zhao is a ruthless general of the Fire Nation Navy and a powerful Firebender. He wants to capture the Avatar before Prince Zuko does or take the Avatar from Zuko if Zuko captures the Avatar first. First appeared in "The Southern Air Temple".
[edit] Episode Guide
- → Main article: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes.
[edit] Credits
- Zach Tyler Eisen as Aang
- Mae Whitman as Katara
- Jack DeSena as Sokka
- Dante Basco as Prince Zuko
- Mako as Uncle Iroh in seasons 1 and 2, Greg Baldwin as Iroh in season 3.
[edit] External link
[edit] Reference
[edit] See also
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