User:Inktog/Avatar

This page is under construction.

Riveteers Ascendancy

Under construction This page is under construction. Expect many and frequent revisions to this content. “The spell will have to wait.”

This is a guide to Avatar: The Last Airbender for players unfamiliar with the source material.

Synopsis

“

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world.

”

Avatar takes place in a world where some people are born with the power to "bend" the elements using martial arts. The Waterbender Katara and her non-bending brother Sokka discover Aang, an Airbender, trapped in the ice near their home at the South Pole. Aang is the Avatar, destined to learn all four elements and save the world from the ruthless Fire Nation. He soon learns that his destiny has a deadline: if he doesn't defeat the Fire Lord before the end of the summer, Sozin's Comet will grant the Firebenders the strength of a hundred suns, and the world will be lost.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Aang's animal companions Appa and Momo spend the first book (season) traveling to the North Pole so that Aang and Katara can learn Waterbending from a master. Appa, a gigantic flying bison, is their mode of transport. Along the way, they make friends, solve problems, get into trouble, and fight plenty of Firebenders. They are pursued by Prince Zuko, banished son of the current Fire Lord, whose sole mission is to capture the Avatar so he can return home. Zuko is accompanied by his uncle, retired general Iroh, who acts as something of a moral compass.

In book two, the trio departs from the North Pole to find Aang an Earthbending teacher. They meet Toph Bei Fong, an Earthbending prodigy, who joins the group to teach Aang. Katara, who mastered Waterbending at the North Pole far quicker than Aang, also becomes his teacher. Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh have been made fugitives of the Fire Nation, and live rough as they attempt to avoid capture while Zuko does some soul-searching. Both groups are hunted by Zuko's sister, Princess Azula.

Everyone converges on Ba Sing Se, the massive walled capital of the Earth Kingdom. The main protagonists present a battle plan to the Earth King: to invade the Fire Nation during a solar eclipse, when the Firebenders will be powerless. But Azula infiltrates the city and gains the loyalty of its secret police—and at a critical moment, Zuko sides with his sister, winning the day for the Fire Nation. The main group escapes, but Iroh is kidnapped and Ba Sing Se has fallen; the war, for now, is lost.

In the first half of book three, the gang travels through the Fire Nation in disguise to rendezvous with their ragtag invasion force—not the Earth Kingdom army they were hoping for, but a group of friends and allies they've made on their journey. Meanwhile, Zuko returns home lauded as a hero, but remains deeply conflicted about his actions in Ba Sing Se. The invasion ultimately fails—the Fire Nation knew they were coming—but Iroh uses the eclipse to escape his jail, while Zuko confronts his father and flees the royal city.

In the show's final arc, Zuko joins the party to teach Aang Firebending. Suki, a non-bending warrior who's shown up only intermittently so far, officially joins the cast when Sokka and Zuko rescue her from prison. When Sozin's Comet arrives, Fire Lord Ozai's plan is revealed: to use the comet's power to raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground, wiping out its people as his grandfather wiped out the Air Nomads so many years ago. The final battle commences: Zuko challenges Azula for the throne with Katara at his side; Sokka, Toph, and Suki take on the fleet of genocidal airships; Iroh leads the charge to free Ba Sing Se; and Aang confronts Ozai. Every battle is won; Aang, unwilling to take a human life, instead finds a way to remove Ozai's bending. The war is over, and the world begins to heal; Zuko is crowned Fire Lord; Aang and Katara kiss. The end.

Characters

Team Avatar

Aang is first introduced as a goofy, fun-loving child; over the course of three show, he gradually matures into his role as the Avatar, bringer of peace and balance. Aang, the Last Airbender depicts him during book one, when he only knows Airbending; the art shows off his sense of joy and whimsy, while the Lesson payoff points to how much he has left to learn—though he's already a very powerful Airbender, a true master. Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements shows Aang at the height of his power: he has finally learned all four elements, so the card is a four-themed payoff for all bending mechanics.

Katara, the Waterbender of the party, is a character of extremes, capable of great compassion and righteous fury. Katara, Bending Prodigy shows her during early book one: a novice Waterbender with no formal training, growing marginally stronger the more she practices. Katara, Water Tribe's Hope represents a sudden mastery of Waterbending once she gets a teacher. It also synergizes with a go-wide Ally strategy, a theme which is epitomized by her book three card, Katara, the Fearless; while Katara herself is powerful, she can also bring out the best in others with her strong convictions and sense of hope.

Sokka is a warrior, a tinkerer, and the idea guy; his sense of strategy keeps the team on task, and his wit and hubris often make him a punchline. As a non-bender, he often plays a support role during combat, which one can see in Sokka, Lateral Strategist if one squints. Sokka, Bold Boomeranger, his book two card, synergizes with his signature weapon, while his red-blue color and rummaging ability speak to his creativity.

Toph is a master Earthbender who's running away from her overprotective parents. She's blind, but can effectively "see" by sensing vibrations in the earth. When we meet her in book two, she's leading a double life in an underground Earthbending ring; Toph, the Blind Bandit (her stage name) is a straightforward earthbending payoff for a character who really really likes bending. Toph, the First Metalbender highlights her crowning achievement, figuring out how to use Earthbending to affect not just stone but metal; the card turns artifacts into valid targets for the earthbending mechanic.

Zuko is a traumatized, hot-tempered Firebending prince. Zuko, Exiled Prince shows him during book one, a villain bent on capturing the Avatar; as he's been exiled from his own homeland, his card plays with the exile zone through impulse draw. Zuko Conflicted (not yet revealed) shows him during his quest of self-discovery in book two. Fire Lord Zuko shows him taking the throne after the final battle; he is still tied to the exile zone, having been shaped by his experiences, but there's a new theme of unity and healing the Fire Nation in the +1/+1 counter ability.

Suki is the least developed of the main cast, being upgraded from a side character only toward the end of book three. Suki, Kyoshi Warrior shows her as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, a trained group of female fighters represented by a go-wide token strategy.

Minor characters

• The Cabbage Merchant: A simple shopkeeper who just wants his to sell his cabbages—which are invariably destroyed whenever he shows up on screen, as represented by the second line of text. The artwork uses a "Pictures taken moments before disaster" approach.
• The Rough Rhinos: A recurring squad of Komodo Rhino–riding Fire Nation soldiers. The leader appears briefly in Jet's tragic flashback. The flavor text says it all.

Episodes

Book 1: Water

Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Katara and Sokka, two siblings from the south pole, are out fishing. Katara is a Waterbender: when she flips her lid at her brother's sexism, she unwittingly unleashes a fearsome display of Waterbending that rips apart an iceberg. This leads to the discovery of a boy and a bison trapped in the ice: the boy is Aang, an Airbender. The bison is Appa, who can allegedly fly but he's really tired from being in that iceberg. The three kids ride Appa (Katara and Sokka's boat was destroy) as he paddles them back to their village. No one has seen an Airbender in a hundred years. Weird! Whatever. Aang makes fast friends with the village children, using his Airbending to invent new games.

Meanwhile, Aang's emergence emits a powerful light, which attracts the attention of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. Zuko has been sailing the seas looking for the Avatar, a hundred-twelve-year-old Air Nomad who has spent his life mastering all four elements. Zuko's uncle, Iroh, is on board with him, and tries to caution him against false hope. But Zuko is convinced. This must be the Avatar—finally, after so many years. When Aang and Katara set

Chapter 2: The Avatar Returns

The flavor text of Aang's Defense and Zuko's Offense both come from Aang's escape attempt—although the former is directed at a random soldier, not at Zuko, and the art comes from a later episode.

Chapter 6: Imprisoned

The trio discovers discovers an Earth Kingdom village occupied by the Fire Nation. The occupation has rounded up all Earthbenders and sent them to a metal prison far from shore, away from any bendable stone. Haru, a teen from the village, has managed to hide his Earthbending, but his father was imprisoned. When Haru is finally discovered and kidnapped, Katara insists on a rescue mission. They discover prisoners who've had their spirits ground out of them, who are focused on survival. Katara tries to rouse their spirits with an inspiring speech, which fails; then she finds them some coal, and the spark of resistance catches and they break free of their prison.

Chapter 15: Bato of the Water Tribe

The art from Zuko's Offense and Aang's Defense (but not the flavor text) come from Aang and Zuko's battle during this episode.

Book 2: Earth

Chapter 11: The Desert

Without Appa, the gang is stranded in the Si Wong Desert with no way out. Sokka drinks a the juice of an unfamiliar cactus and starts hallucinating (the card is a pun on Quench).

Chapter 12: The Serpent's Pass

The gang is about to ride the ferry to Ba Sing Se, but a pregnant woman and her husband—who were robbed of their passports—entreat them for help. The gang and Suki lead the couple across the dangerous Serpent's Pass land bridge. It's surprisingly straight and not at all windy like a serpent—which is because it's named after the actual serpent who attacks the gang.