Avatar: The Last Airbender

In 2005, Nickelodeon launched a show that looked like a kids' cartoon but turned out to be something far more ambitious. Avatar: The Last Airbender dropped viewers into a world where certain people can manipulate water, earth, fire, or air through martial arts moves. Only one person, the Avatar, can master all four elements. The problem: the Avatar has been missing for a hundred years, and the Fire Nation has spent that century conquering everything in sight.

The series follows Aang, a 12-year-old airbender who wakes up from a hundred-year nap inside an iceberg. He teams up with siblings Katara and Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe. Together they travel the world so Aang can learn the other three elements and stop Fire Lord Ozai from burning down the Earth Kingdom. Along the way they pick up Toph, a blind earthbending prodigy, and face enemies like the exiled Prince Zuko and his terrifying sister Azula.

What made the show stick was how seriously it took its own world. The characters wrestled with real moral questions, honor, genocide, redemption, the cost of war, without talking down to its audience. The animation blended anime influences with American storytelling, and the martial arts choreography was grounded in actual Chinese styles. By the time the finale aired in July 2008, the show had built a devoted fanbase that only grew larger when it hit streaming services years later.[edit]

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is split into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. In each nation, certain people called benders can control their native element through precise martial arts movements. The Avatar is the only person who can bend all four, and their job is to keep balance between the nations and between the human and spirit worlds. When the Avatar dies, they reincarnate into the next nation in the cycle.

A hundred years before the story begins, Fire Lord Sozin started a war to spread Fire Nation rule across the world. He wiped out the Air Nomads in a genocide meant to kill the Avatar before they could grow up. But the young Avatar, an airbender boy named Aang, escaped by flying his sky bison Appa into a storm and freezing himself in the ocean. He stayed frozen for a century while the Fire Nation conquered more and more territory.

The series opens when siblings Katara and Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe find Aang and Appa trapped in an iceberg. Katara is the last waterbender in her tribe, desperate to learn more. Sokka is a non-bender who fancies himself a warrior but has a lot to learn. Together they set out to find a waterbending master at the North Pole so Aang can begin his training.

Book One: Water covers their journey north while being hunted by Prince Zuko, the exiled son of Fire Lord Ozai. Zuko believes capturing the Avatar will restore his honor and let him go home. Also on Aang's trail is Commander Zhao, a ruthless Fire Navy admiral who wants the glory for himself. The season takes the group through Earth Kingdom villages, Fire Navy ships, and the Spirit World. It ends with a massive battle at the Northern Water Tribe where Aang merges with the ocean spirit to drive back the Fire Nation fleet.

Book Two: Earth shifts the quest to finding an earthbending teacher. The group meets Toph Beifong, a blind 12-year-old from a wealthy family who ran away to become the world's greatest earthbender. She joins the team as Aang's teacher. Meanwhile, Zuko's sister Azula enters the picture. She's a firebending prodigy who is also cold, calculating, and dangerously unstable. The season follows the group through the Earth Kingdom as they try to reach the secret city of Ba Sing Se. But Azula gets there first and uses political manipulation to bring the city under Fire Nation control. The season ends with Aang being shot by Azula's lightning and the Earth Kingdom falling.

Book Three: Fire starts with Aang recovering on a Fire Nation island while the world thinks he's dead. The group goes undercover in the Fire Nation to plan their next move. Zuko, now welcomed back as a hero, slowly realizes that his father's approval is hollow. He makes a choice that changes everything: he joins Aang and becomes his firebending teacher. The season builds toward the Day of Black Sun, a solar eclipse that takes away firebending power, and then the return of Sozin's Comet, which supercharges it. The heroes must stop Ozai before he uses the comet to burn down the entire Earth Kingdom.[edit]