Post by Lord Wudious on Jul 15, 2006 2:36:32 GMT 8
I'm not sure how many of you (or your children) have seen this, but the show is awesome.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a fantasy world on a planet that is home to humans, fantastic animals and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four pre-industrialized nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Within each nation, there is an order of men and women called "Benders" who have an inborn ability of learning to manipulate their native element. Bending is a powerful artform, combining martial arts and elemental mystics. The bending arts are waterbending, earthbending, firebending and airbending.
In each generation, one Bender is capable of bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the Spirit of the Planet manifested in the form of man or woman. When an Avatar dies, the Avatar Spirit reincarnates into an unborn baby of a mother native to the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. Starting with the mastery of his native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements in the order of the cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire and fall for air. Throughout the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in balance and harmony. The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.
Aang, a twelve-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, learned from his monk instructors that he was the Avatar. However, the Air Nomads feared that a war between the four nations was on the horizon, and that the Avatar would soon be needed to help maintain balance. Shortly thereafter, it was decided that Aang would be sent to the Eastern Air Temple to finish his training.
Confused, frightened and overwhelmed by all that was happening, Aang fled from his home on his flying bison Appa. While over the ocean, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Unknowingly entering the Avatar State, Aang used Waterbending to freeze Appa and himself in an ice sphere, putting them in a state of suspended animation.
When the series opens one hundred years later, the Fire Nation is on the brink of victory in its imperialist war. The Water Tribes are in crisis—the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have gone off to war, leaving their home defenseless, and the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. The vast Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's domination, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes for victory grow bleaker with each passing year.
Two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe—Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother Sokka—discover and free Aang from his iceberg. Aang soon finds out that in his absence, the war the monks feared had happened. The very year he vanished, the ruthless Fire Lord Sozen took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the firebending-enhancing powers of a powerful burning comet to launch a war on the three other nations. To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in an effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving him as the last known Airbender in existence.
Aang then realizes, as the Avatar, it is his duty to restore harmony and peace among the four nations.
Although it takes years of discipline and training to master any one element, Aang must master them all and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozen's Comet will grant the Firebenders the power to finish the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will be able to restore balance to the world.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a fantasy world on a planet that is home to humans, fantastic animals and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four pre-industrialized nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Within each nation, there is an order of men and women called "Benders" who have an inborn ability of learning to manipulate their native element. Bending is a powerful artform, combining martial arts and elemental mystics. The bending arts are waterbending, earthbending, firebending and airbending.
In each generation, one Bender is capable of bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the Spirit of the Planet manifested in the form of man or woman. When an Avatar dies, the Avatar Spirit reincarnates into an unborn baby of a mother native to the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. Starting with the mastery of his native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements in the order of the cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire and fall for air. Throughout the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in balance and harmony. The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.
Aang, a twelve-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, learned from his monk instructors that he was the Avatar. However, the Air Nomads feared that a war between the four nations was on the horizon, and that the Avatar would soon be needed to help maintain balance. Shortly thereafter, it was decided that Aang would be sent to the Eastern Air Temple to finish his training.
Confused, frightened and overwhelmed by all that was happening, Aang fled from his home on his flying bison Appa. While over the ocean, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Unknowingly entering the Avatar State, Aang used Waterbending to freeze Appa and himself in an ice sphere, putting them in a state of suspended animation.
When the series opens one hundred years later, the Fire Nation is on the brink of victory in its imperialist war. The Water Tribes are in crisis—the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have gone off to war, leaving their home defenseless, and the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. The vast Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's domination, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes for victory grow bleaker with each passing year.
Two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe—Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother Sokka—discover and free Aang from his iceberg. Aang soon finds out that in his absence, the war the monks feared had happened. The very year he vanished, the ruthless Fire Lord Sozen took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the firebending-enhancing powers of a powerful burning comet to launch a war on the three other nations. To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in an effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving him as the last known Airbender in existence.
Aang then realizes, as the Avatar, it is his duty to restore harmony and peace among the four nations.
Although it takes years of discipline and training to master any one element, Aang must master them all and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozen's Comet will grant the Firebenders the power to finish the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will be able to restore balance to the world.