Avatar the Last Airbender

                                                  

Since 2007 Avatar the Last Airbender has captivated me and millions around the globe, irrespective of any specific demographic boundaries. 

Avatar the Last Airbender, is a Nickelodeon Animated series about a twelve year old boy freed from an iceberg only to discover he's been frozen for a hundred years, the world is engulfed in war and his entire people have been wiped out.

The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz. Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world of Chinese martial arts and elemental manipulation. The show drew on elements from traditional Asian culture, blending the styles of anime and US domestic cartoons.

It is right to say that this series is pretty much the pokemon and dragonball z of this decade defining a generation of fans. 

Since it's release it has won numerous awards for its compelling characters, brilliant writing and superb animation, including Annie Awards for three years in a row, a Genesis Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Peabody Award for "Unusually complex character and  healthy respect for the consequences of warfare."

Series Overview:

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Furthermore, people known as Benders have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation using the physical motions of martial arts. The show’s creators based each Bending style on a style of real-world martial art, leading to visual differences in the techniques used by Waterbenders (tai chi chuan), Earthbenders (Hung Ga kung fu, for the most part), Firebenders (Northern Shaolin kung fu) and Airbenders (baguazhang). Each country is also associated with a season: autumn for the Air Nomads, winter for the Water Tribe, spring for the Earth Kingdom and summer for the Fire Nation.

At any given time, there is only one person alive in the world of Avatar who is capable of bending all four elements: the show's titular Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. When an Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into the next nation in the Avatar Cycle, in the order of the seasons. Legend holds the Avatar must master each bending art in seasonal order as well, starting with their native element. For the Avatar, learning to bend their opposite element can be extremely difficult; the example shown in the series is Aang's inability to stand his ground head-on while Earthbending, his Airbender training having placed emphasis on circling, approaching from new angles and adapting on the fly.

The Avatar possesses a unique power called the Avatar State, which endows the Avatar with the knowledge and abilities of all past Avatars and acts as a self-triggering defense mechanism, although it can be made subject to the will of the user through various methods, such as extensive trial and training (such as Avatar Roku), or if he/she opens his/her bodily Chakras. If an Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist.Through the ages, countless incarnations of Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony, and maintain world order. The Avatar serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, allowing him or her to solve problems that normal benders cannot.

The series aired for 3 season, each season is named after the element Aang trains to master during that season, which are Water, Earth and the final season being fire.

Main Characters:

Aang  is the 12 year old fun-loving, protagonist of the series who had been frozen in ice with his flying bison, Appa, for about 100 years. He is freed by a young Waterbender named Katara who later becomes his love interest. He is the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. Aang is a reluctant hero trying to return balance to the world.

Katara  is a powerful 14 year old Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara and her brother, Sokka, discover and free Aang from a block of ice in which he had been frozen for 100 years. With her brother Sokka, she accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord and, eventually, becomes his Waterbending teacher. Katara is also one of the only Waterbenders that have the ability to Bloodbend, which allows her to control any person by bending the water inside the blood; although she is reluctant to use the ability. 

Sokka  is a 15 year old warrior of the Southern Water Tribe. With his sister, Katara, he accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord. As both the joker and the idea man of the group, Sokka describes himself as "meat-loving" and "sarcastic". Unlike his companions, Sokka does not have any bending ability; however the series, though it often makes him the victim of comedy at his expense, frequently grants him opportunities to use his ingenuity and weapons, including his trusty boomerang and a sword he forged from a meteorite. From creator Michael Dante DiMartino it was revealed that Sokka also had some waterbending potential, but never realized it.

Toph Bei Fong (Jessie Flower) is a 12 year old  blind, tough Earthbender who first appears in the second season of the show. Not long after meeting Aang and his friends, she leaves her wealthy family and comfortable home to join Aang on his quest and a plan to teach him Earthbending. Though blind, Toph "sees" by feeling vibrations in the ground through her feet. She is the only Earthbender to learn to bend metal and is considered one of the most powerful Earthbenders.(She learns metal bending while trapped inside a metal box.)

Zuko  is the 16 year old exiled prince of the Fire Nation and original antagonist of the series. Due to events in Zuko's past, his father Fire Lord Ozai, deems him a complete failure, and Zuko feels he must capture the Avatar to regain his honor. Over time, Zuko struggles to deal with his anger, self-pity, and complex familial relationships. Over the course of the series he grows sympathetic to the people his nation has terrorized. He takes on the identity of "the blue spirit" at the end of season one and beginning of season two. In season three, he defects from the Fire Nation and joins the Avatar and the team in order to teach Aang Firebending. At the end of the series, he is crowned ruler of the Fire Nation.

Azula  is the manipulative princess of the Fire Nation. She is Zuko's younger sister and one of the major antagonists of the series. Azula is a Firebending prodigy and is one of the few living Firebenders capable of casting lightning. She uses fear to control her relatives or friends Mai and Ty Lee, reserving her family loyalty for her father alone.

Iroh  is a retired Fire Nation general, known as the Dragon of the West, and Prince Zuko's uncle and mentor. Iroh was the original heir to the Fire Nation throne until his brother usurped the throne after Fire Lord Azulon's death. On the surface, Iroh is a cheerful, kind, optimistically eccentric tea-loving old man, but he still remains a powerful warrior and a devoted surrogate parent to Zuko. Iroh is a Grand Master of the Order of the White Lotus, a secret society of men from all nations and helps retake Ba Sing Se during the series finale. Unlike most Firebenders, Iroh does not use anger as the source of his strength; instead he uses the original Firebending skills learned from the Dragons

The character development in the series is complex and realistic, the characters face the same emotional and ethical challenges as one would if thrust into a similar situation in the real world. Each of the character is not one-dimensional as is seen in many shows, they are complex, with many layers and each has a history and proper personality development.

Cultural Influences:

Avatar borrows extensively from Asian art and mythology to bring its universe to life. The show's character design is heavily influenced by anime as well as Chinese art and history, Hinduism, Taoism Buddhism and Yoga. Traditional East Asian calligraphy is used for nearly all the writing in the show. The show employed a cultural consultant and a calligrapher as consultant for the show's cultural influences. 

The music and sound used in the series was done by Jeremy Zucherman and Banjamin Wynn. They made use of a wide variety of asian instruments such as guzheng, pipa and duduk to compose a background score that fits into this fantastic world.

Avatar:

Avatar comes from the Sanskrit Language. The word Avatara (Sanskrit: अवतार) which means "descent", its roots are ava, "down" and tri "to pass". In Hindu scriptures avatara signifies the descent of divinity into flesh. One who attains union with spirit and then returns to earth to help humanity is called an avatar. The Chinese Characters that appear at the top of the show's title card mean "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world"

During the series it is revealed that the Avatar's identity is discovered in each cycle when the avatar chooses four toys out of thousands which were the childhood toys of the previous avatars. This mirrors the tradition in Tibetan Buddhism where there is a similar test for reincarnations of a Tulku Lama, where the child must pick out amongst thousands of things which belonged to the late tulku, thus showing that he recognizes the things which were theirs in their previous life.Each successor is expected to show signs of continuity with the previous Avatar, such as being born within a week of the death.

Elements & Fighting Style:

Avatar draws on the four classical elements common to many ancient philosophies for its bending arts: Water, Earth, Fire and Air. In the show’s opening, each element is accompanied by two Chinese characters: an ancient Chinese seal script character on the left representing the element being shown and a modern Chinese character on the right describing some feature of the element. The character 水 (pinyin: shui), which stands for water, is shown with 善 (pinyin: shan), which means benevolence and adaptivity. The character 土 (pinyin: tu), which stands for earth, is shown with 強 (pinyin: qiang), which means for strength and stability. The character 火 (pinyin: huo), which stands for fire, is shown with 烈 (pinyin: lie), which means intensity and passion. Finally, the character 气 (pinyin: qi), which stands for air, is shown with 和 (pinyin: he), which means peace and harmony.

In addition to the use of four classical elements in the series, the fighting styles associated with each element are all taken from different styles of Chinese martial arts. The series employed Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant. Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected. Tai Chi was used for "Waterbending" in the series, and it focuses on alignment, body structure, breath, and visualization. Hung Gar was used for "Earthbending" in the series, and was chosen for its firmly rooted stances and powerful strikes to present the solid nature of earth. Northern Shaolin, which uses strong arm and leg movements was used for "Firebending". And Ba Gua, which uses dynamic circular movements and quick directional changes, was used for "Airbending". The only exception to these styles is Toph (the blind earth-bender), who can be seen practicing a Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style.

Not exactly A kid's Cartoon:

So many times so many of the older fans of the series have heard this from non-fans, Avatar comes on Nickelodeon isn't that a kids toon. Well the series is more than that, its brilliance lies in the fact that it is able to tell a compelling and complex story while tackling the issues of war, genocide, racism, honor, love, friendship, ethics without shedding a single drop of blood. Therefore this show can be enjoyed by people of all ages for it teaches us the lessons of understanding, honor etc. Unlike other cartoons on nick and other channels, Avatar The last airbender is steeped deeply in real world culture, mythology and traditions making it a rather unique experience to watch it.

Conclusion:

One of the best animated series of our generation, it teaches many life lessons. The characters, story reflects real life, in a mythical and beautiful world. It will be enjoyed by many generations to come.

The reason behind writing this post was, to share with the non-fans of the world what avatar the last airbender is all about? how is this show different? and what makes it different? the real world cultural references? and the lessons it can teach all of us.

Where to get info on the series?:

http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender_Portal

Where to watch the series?:

http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/avatar-last-airbender

© 2010 posted by Mustafa Ali Khan Afreedi (DarkMystic)