Avatar: The Last Airbender

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This article is awesome. Do not fuck it up.

TL;DR a setting for AZN kung-fu and high magic without being the over-the-top Exalted and not the highbrow Legend of the Five Rings.

Let's say you want something that is fantasy, set in a large complex world that in no way rips off J.R.R. Tolkien, is presented in visual form and is just well made all around. Well, Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko had come to your aid with Avatar: The Last Airbender and its new followup The Legend of Korra. It is in no way related to James Cameron's similarly titled work (thank god).

Setting

You have a world modeled primarily off Asia (in particular dynastic China), plus some people can magically manipulate simple matter using martial arts moves called "bending." Benders can manipulate one and only one of the Earth, Air, Fire or Water elements. The exception to this rule is one person called the "Avatar" who can master all four types of bending, and universally regarded as a spiritual leader (think: the Dalai Lama). There is only ever one Avatar in each generation, who is the reincarnation of the previous Avatar and can remember (converse with the ghosts of) previous Avatars.

The continent of the Avatar universe, only slightly inspired by China - The Republic City from the second series is situated on the western coast of the Earth Kingdom.

The world has one language and four nations:

• The Water Tribes: Hunter-gatherer Inuit-like people who live in the North and South polar regions. The South Pole tribe consists of stereotypical Inuit, whereas the ones living at the North Pole got bored of making simple igloos and carved their entire city out of ice. Then they added canals to troll the physicists. Korra was born in the South. There is also a water tribe scattered in equatorial swamps that manipulate the swamp vines by bending the water saturating the vines.
  • The Northern and Southern Water tribes are Inuit and First Nations analogues, even casting Native Americans in the Netflix Live action (people tend to overlook that historically, the Indigenous Peoples of both Americas crossed from Asia, and so remain very genetically close to Asia.) the Swamp Tribe is like Southeast Asians living in a Louisiana Bayou.
  • The Water Tribes were notable for not only creating a society in the barren poles, but doing so within proximity to two portals to the Spirit World. A third would be created in the second series.
  • The Northern Water Tribe is the first of the two, and is notably more advanced than their southern cousins, who are implied to be a mere colony, with the North often interfering in Southern politics, or sending their exiles there.
  • That being said, a point of contention between the two tribes was that the Northern Water Tribe left the Southerners on their while the Fire Nation was raiding them for 100 years; after the Air Nomad genocide, the Fire Nation wanted to stop the Avatar from reincarnating within the Water Tribe, so they arrested all Water Benders they could in the South, which was weaker than the North.

• The Earth Kingdom: A large loose continental power ruled out of the massive fortified city of Ba Sing Se. Wealthy and prosperous, they are masters of resource harvesting with bending as a safe and efficient means of mining metals and rare earths, and reduced labour required for farming.
  • Culturally diverse, the Earth Kingdom takes a lot of notes from Imperial China, especially the Warring States and Ming era China. Like the Warring States/Three Kingdom period, the entire "Kingdom" is actually divided into several provinces, led by an appointed Governor or a King (Bumi from Omashu) who leads their state in their own right, nominally paying tribute to the Earth King in Ba Sing Se. In the second series, after the assassination of the Earth Queen, the entire Kingdom actually fractures back into independent states, each one having to be reconquered by hot fascist dom mommy Kuvira.
  • Ba Sing Se is the Capital City, and is arranged in three Concentric Circles (like the city in Attack on titan), each tier literally stratified to house ths different classes. It is the home of the Earth King, who lives in utmost luxury within the innermost circle. He is more of a figurehead, though, with most of the power held by bureaucrats within the city, or by the Kings and governors without.
  • Modeled heavily by Ming and Qing era China, which both had emperors who ruled mostly through their bureaucrats, to the point that they had no idea how their subjects lived. The Qing emperors were notoriously out of touch, and were the dynasty that lost to the West in the Opium Wars. They even had their own secret police, which also served to stifle dissent and to shuffle away naysayers from the Emperor so that he wouldnt have to listen to reports of how bad they were losing to the West.
  • Seriously, this shithole has a secret police force that monitors the inhabitants and re-indoctrinates them to not cause trouble. Some Tolkien-esque undertones there. Then again, the first series is mostly about Buddhism, balance and peace, so it makes sense.
  • The sequel splits the Earth continent into three big territories: The original Earth Kingdom, Republic City (a neutral territory independent from each nation while working with them all), and Zaofu (a city of metalbenders who made their own city after Toph began teaching Metalbending. One of her daughters runs the place).

• The Fire Nation: A technologically advanced state based off of a volcanic island chain with imperialistic ambitions (so, culturally Japan, but also mixed in with Malay and Indonesian aesthetic). By technologically advanced, we mean they have steampunk tanks, ironclad ships, a giant freaking drill and hot-air zeppelins (the original concept for the zeppelins was invented by an earth nation mechanic but the fire nation turned them up to 11), and by the time of the sequel, a nation-wide electric grid. Their culture encourages ambition and competition.
  • The Fire Nation is led by the Fire Lord, who unlike the Earth King, actually runs the country as an absolute monarchy. Even the Fire Sages, the pseudo-Shinto monks, that keep the nation's history and handle the Fire Lord's coronation, are more loyal to the Fire Lord than the Avatar they're supposed to serve/venerate.
  • As a technologically-advanced, imperialist state, they're modeled off Japan, but their clothing and food is very Malay/Indonesian. Seriously, avatar had two beach episodes, both of which were located in the Fire Nation, where the cast wore Malay-inspired outfits.
  • In the second series, the Fire Nation is still an autocracy, though this time led by Zuko's daughter (he abdicated, and is still alive in the second series). They are still militarized, but just like IRL Japan or Germany, only mobilize their troops for their own defense.

• The Air Nomads: Monastic wanderer-gatherers who lived ascetic (if non-celibate) lives, like what normies think Tibetans live like. They have four temple-cities that the wanderers will cycle through, and monuments scattered throughout the territories of the other three nations. By the time of the first story, the Air Nomads were purged with holy fire in an attempt to prevent the reincarnation of the next Avatar. The Avatar was born to Air Nomads anyways and is the protagonist of the first story.
  • After the Harmonic Convergence and Korra saving the world, a strange anomaly happens where random people begin developing airbending powers. Of course, Tenzin (Aang's son) begins making a world tour to meet these airbenders and rebuild the Air Nomads.

There is a fifth faction, of the fae creatures collectively called "Spirits," who used to be common but have mostly left the physical world behind for their own Spirit World that is an alternate dimension. The spirits that remain in the physical world are dedicated to the places they reside, interacting very little with people but they have been known to pick-up on the ambient mood of communities around them (ie. a river spirit will be irritable if the river is polluted and neglected, a mountain spirit will be confrontational if the nation has been at war).

When the first story starts, the Fire Nation has been expanding aggressively into the Earth Nation for four generations, which hasn't been reacting beyond resisting in small city-states and issuing an "everything is fine they'll never win" message from the capital in what's obvious procrastination, hoping the Fire Nation will give up and decide the constant sieges are too expensive (spoiler: nope). The Fire Nation has already extinguished the Air Nomads, satisfied they have prevented the rebirth of the next Avatar prophesied to end their conquering. The Fire Nation naval aggression have made a virtual embargo on the Water Tribes, isolating north from south and both from the Earth Nation.

The only surviving Air Nomad after the pogrom is the current Avatar, who hid himself in cryosleep. Nobody was around to resuscitate him so he was out of the picture for a century or so. His education was interrupted and feels he needs to learn all four forms of bending as well as visit each of the isolated culture/nations before he can fulfill his purpose as a peacemaker.

The second story is sixty years after the first story, and the world's technology has advanced to the level of the 1900's -- ironclad ships are common, we can see industrial manufacturing in privately-owned companies instead of Fire Nation government military efforts, automobiles are uncommon but visible, use of Electricity, while limited to the most properous areas of the world is a thing and we see people listening to crystal radios. Most of the story takes place in "Republic City," which is for all intents and purposes New York City with Chinese architecture. Republic City is the world's equivalent of the United Nations; an independent city-state regarded as a symbol of the international peace. There is civil unrest, as the improved technology is closing the gap between benders and non-benders, causing resentment since benders have had a leg-up in social strata. This resulted in the insurgency of the "Equalist Movement" who want to overthrow the "let them eat cake" bender bourgeoisie.

The Avatar of this era is a young woman from the water tribes who is comfortable with the physical powers granted by her mastery of multiple elements but stunted in her training with spiritual matters and diplomacy, making her a poor mediator in the role that's expected of her, and easily manipulated by politicians. The Equalist insurgents are lead by a charismatic leader named "Amon," who claims to have a method for permanently disabling any person's bending ability; crippling the Avatar would be a huge symbolic victory for the Equalists, who see the Avatar as the pinnacle bender and biggest target for their resentments.

Characters

The Last Airbender

From top left and towards right, Toph, Prince Zuko, Sokka, Katara and Avatar Aang.

The Gaang

• Aang: Protagonist de jour. Mostly optimistic (when he's not panicking) and the nimblest motherfucker you'll ever meet due to being an Airbending prodigy. His destiny is to master the other three elements and save the world. Favorite mode of transport: flying bison. Known to go godmode when shit hits the fan.
• Katara: Motherly waterbending love interest. Occasionally kicks ass. WARNING: FRIENDSHIP SPEECHES AHEAD. The only one in the group with any resemblance of common sense other than Aang, and has a surprising amount of wisdom and knowledge for her age.
• Sokka: Katara's bigger brother, a tech-minded guy in a world of magic Kung Fu and Spirits that get pissed off if you cut down too many trees in an area. The non bender of the group so he has to think his way to victory. Man's man, ladies man, master swordsman, brilliant scientist (he co-invented the submarine with the earth nation mechanic who invented the zeppelin in this world), leader of men, and a genius in the use of comedy in all its shapes and forms, from the one-liner to the pratfall. We all wish we were Sokka.
• Toph Beifong: A blind twelve year old girl introduced in Season 2. Also a massive badass, a tomboy and the best Earthbender in existence.
• Momo: Aang's companion. Hybrid of a bat and a lemur - This is normal in the Avatar universe. Is a cute little bugger.
• Appa: Aforementioned flying bison. Hasn't got a lot of personality and functions as the group's main center of operations, supplied by a platform on its back. A large part of the second season is focused on getting him back from captivity. Like Aang, he's the last of his kind, but as an animal rather than a human, he's an endling (An actual real-life term)... Until the next series retconned Appa into a subspecies of flying bison, removing the story sting and symbolism of being the last of his kind.

Allies

• Suki: Member of the order of Kyoshi warriors (a group of warriors inspired by one of Aang's past lives, Avatar Kyoshi - an Avatar who looked like an amazon combined with a geisha). They live on an island and hold the Avatar in high regard. Kind-hearted yet one of the best fighters in the series, second only to Iroh, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee. Literally knocked the sexism out of Sokka when they first met (beating him in a fight and proving to him that it's possible a woman can fight better than a man) and later on the two fall in love.
• King Bumi: King of the Earth city Omashu, a massive badass and a very old man (he's a childhood friend of Aang's, and Aang was frozen in ice for a century). Possible origin of the term "mad genius", Aang's nickname for him, since he acts crazy but is extremely smart. Tied with Toph for the most powerful Earthbender in existence. He surrendered his city to a fire nation invasion, but, in the series' best moment of Just As Planned, the city was evacuated, he waited until the firebenders temporarily lost their powers, then used his Earthbending to singlehandedly retake his city without killing or losing a single person.

Enemies

• Zuko: Exiled firebender prince. Originally a whiny bitch attempting to hunt the avatar to end his exile, but undergoes <gasp>CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT</gasp>, eventually becoming Aang's firebending teacher.
• Azula: Zuko's crazy badass dominatrix sister. Also a magnificent bitch with mommy-issues. Hobbies: Shooting lightning, manipulating others to further her plans, being better than you and volleyball. Often accompanied by her only friends/lieutenants the knife-wielding goth, Mai, and the acrobatic valley girl, jailbait teenager fap bait Ty Lee.
• Ozai: Ruler of the Fire Nation, firebender of (near) "UNLIMITED POWAH!", crappy father (burned his preteen son's face and exiled him for being 'rude'; rude here meaning protesting against using new recruits as cannon fodder, he also made Azula what she is), and above all evil motherfucker (not surprising considering he's played by Mark Hamill aka Joker). Willing to genocide entire races and nations in order to ensure his power, and his country's undisputed supremacy (Sounds quite familiar). At the end, he is betrayed by his son who joins the enemy side and Aang strips him of his powers and his previously banished son becomes the new monarch and throws him in the dungeons to rot.

Others

• Iroh: Zuko's uncle, a bro-tier guy even when on the villain's side and (spoiler) later revealed to be a secret hero who also saved the dragons from extinction by pretending he'd killed the last ones. Basically what would happen if one of the dirtier-minded Buddhas could eat fire, shit lightning, and drink enough tea to cause a younger man's heart to explode. A fun guy to be around, minus the team-killing. Voiced by the glorious, the late Mako Iwamatsu.

Legend of Korra

From top to bottom, Master Tenzin, Mako, Bolin, and Avatar Korra.

The Krew

• Korra: The title character, and a brash, athletic tomboy who lacks spiritual aptitude (which means she punches people instead of meditating and talking things through like some kind of hippy... which isn't a good idea when your chief enemy is claiming you oppress people who disagree with them). Gets her ass kicked a lot despite being skilled in three of the four elements due to her impulsiveness and not outright mastering any of them. Rule 34 has taken this penchant for failure and run a fucking marathon with it.
  • Unlike Aang, whose story arc revolves around him beating back the evil empire and rebuilding the world, Korra's is about the balance of Spirituality with the "Modern" world; as mentioned above, Korra started out with 0 aptitude for air bending, the most spiritual of the elements. She even sneaks out of her training to participate in "pro-bending" matches, a mix of MMA and full-contact dodgeball that her air-bending master considers to be low-class garbage. She eventually gets good, but only after losing her connection to all the other elements and falling into despair. The rest of the seasons has her fighting in a civil war, chasing anarchists, resolving disputes with Daemons Spirits and the Material World, and fighting Earth Empire Fascists, and eventually losing her connection with her previous incarnations, losing her GOD MODE power button and forcing her to deal with problems herself.
  • Korra gets a lot of flak for supposedly being a Mary Sue, because much of her supposed power and competence is handed to her on a plate with no personal growth involved. But then again, that's the entire point of being the literal avatar of Bending, having the combined experience of all previous Avatars. She doesn't get a flawless Creator's Pet story flow; gets even poisoned by mercury, tortured, Chi damaged and imprisoned, and learns to take a hell of a beating and works together with non-benders and benders alike. Hell, she even has her Avatar powers beaten out of her by Anarchists, but apparently she's still a Mary Sue because...reasons
  • Her arms are also enough of an inspiration for girls worldwide to invest in fitness and go to a gym. Crush us between your thighs, Korra.

• Mako: Writers said he's "Zuko without the angst"; however they forgot Zuko had other traits and so is just some generic dude Korra wants to make out with, and kind of a creepy asshole. Also cheated on Asami. His primary characteristics are his strong sense of duty and a scarf. Team's Firebender, was taught how to lightningbend by a mobster. Becomes a cop in the second season, and then stopped after scandals involving eccentric rich dudes. Named after the late Japanese actor, Mako Iwamatsu, who among his many accomplishments voiced Iroh in The Last Airbender.
• Bolin: Mako's younger brother. Unlike Mako, Bolin is an earthbender and has character traits. He's the team's "funny guy" (he's basically like Sokka, but without the wit or tactical sense...actually now that you say it, nothing like Sokka except occasionally being comic relief), being on the better side of the whole dudebro thing while avoiding asshole territory. Had a crush on Korra, but she strung him along and shacked up with his brother Mako, with Bolin even walking in on them kissing when he was ready to confess his feelings to Korra. Ouch! Also happens to luck into being a movie star because of an eccentric rich man. In spite of his inability to get with Korra, he spent the rest of the series being chased by women(and a Yandere waterbender)/simping for his girlfriend, an airbender named Opal.
  • An absolute failure as a metalbender, but later learns that he could lavabend, which impresses everyone. Shows that some advanced techniques cant simply be learned.
• Asami Sato: Daughter of this world's inventor of the automobile and easily the most rounded and best member of Team Avatar. She does not have any flaws other than being too nice sometimes, which is not a flaw, and yet is somehow not a loathsome Mary Sue. Mostly because she isn't in the show much, isn't overpowered, and when she's kicking ass with an Equalist power fist it is pretty awesome. Revealed to be in lesbians with Korra at the end of the series (technically the directors said they're bisexual, but same difference) in a transparent attempt to redeem the series in the eyes of Tumblr, kicking off a category 5 skubstorm in the process and delighting everyone who wanted to make/already had made Rule 34 of the pairing.

Allies

• Tenzin: The youngest song of Aang and Katara, a sane, calm, rational Airbending master and adviser to Korra... most of the time. Has a wife and four children (his wife gives birth to the fourth during the show), three of which are airbenders. Starts off being a hard-ass until his own family insists that he ease off. Is very set on keeping the Airbending traditions alive and considers his duty to his people and his father important above all else to the point that he wants to be just like his father... with good reason, since he's trying to rebuild a civilization that went through an attempted genocide which his father was the only survivor of. Voiced by J.K Simmons.
• Lin Beifong: Toph's even more hard-assed daughter who's chief of Republic City Police. Pretty much only uses metalbending and tries her damnedest to keep everything under control. Despite being a hard-ass, she's completely correct in her negative assessment of Korra in Season 1.
• Suyin Beifong: Lin's sister who built a city of metalbenders named Zaofu. Had to leave Republic City after her mother covered up her association with a gang of criminals and accidentally scarring her sister.

Enemies

• Amon: Eliphas the Inheritor's bastard son and a hero of the common man and working class who strives to end the oppression of foul bending class and bring about true equality and a golden age of happiness, until later episodes reveal he's just batshit insane. Also, has the BEST voice in the entire series, being also blessed by Steve Blum.
  • He is the leader of the Equalists, an anti-bending faction composed of non-benders. They make up for their lack of elemental control with chi-blocking martial arts, stun batons, and later in the uprising, steampunk powerfists, Tianium Mechs that cant be metal-bent, and fighter-bomber biplanes.
  • They're aguably the most sympathetic of the four villains, as non-benders living in a society literally run by benders: the Council of Republic City was originally composed of representatives of the four nations and advanced their nation's interest over the city's, with the non-bending population of the city having fuck all representation on the council; the police has non-bending detectives, but metalbending SWAT, who spend most of their time doing a really bad job of managing the Triads (criminal gangs composed of benders of the three nations, who extort the non-benders for protection). Fuck, even the electricity is generated by Benders, with one episode showing Mako earning some extra cash by lightning bending to generate electricity.
  • Amon is able to remove people's bending which the Equalists believed to have been a sign of favor from the Spirits, and an ability only Aang was shown to have in the first series. It later turns out he was just a Bloodbender, who was able to lobotomize the bending part of their brain and prevent them from controlling their chi, which is actually more awesome.
• Vaatu: The spirit of chaos of the Avatar world, who is embattled with an eternal conflict with Raava, the incarnation of peace. They're suppose to be analogies of Yin and Yang (the Chinese philosophy that opposing forces balance and compliment each other to create peace and equilibrium), but the writers kinda fucked it up and made it: "VAATU IS CHAOS SO BAD, RAAVA IS PEACE SO GUD". Even worse, the writers already did spirits that were a Yin and Yang analogy in ATLA with the spirits Tui and La who took the form of Koi fish.
• Unalaq: Lorgar of the Avatar world. Starts off a malicious prick and then literally gets empowered by the Dark God to make a fucking Kaiju fight. Is also Korra's uncle. Also a very powerful Waterbender.
  • Eska and Desna: Unalaq's identical twin son and daughter. One of them becomes Bolin's stalker and tries marrying him. She's voiced by Aubrey Plaza.
• Red Lotus: A secret society dedicated to the cause of anarchy. Not necessesarily the most sympathetic villains, but certainly the ones whose worldviews are the most coherent and interesting.
  • Zaheer: The Normie Batman-lite leader of the group, the deeply spiritual Zaheer semi-spontaneously developed Airbending powers after Korra aligned the spirit world with the one that matters. Instead of being a Buddhist about it like Aang, he rips the air out of people's lungs and embraces the void like a boss. Learns how to fly after his girlfriend is tricked into making her own head explode. Voiced and faced by Henry Rollins.
  • Ghazan: One of Zaheer's pals. An earthbender with a pretty cool temper, except he is actually so good he can lavabend, a fit previously only done by the Avatar in their avatar state. Voiced by Peter Giles.
  • Ming-Hua: An arm-less lady with an extraordinary good level of waterbending. Seriously, in a world where you have to mimic martial arts mouvements to shoot fireballs and stuff, doing it without arms seems a tad bit difficult and yet she is able to form water arms that she can partially freeze to form blades, hooks and over deadly forms depending on the situation. Voiced by Grey DeLisle.
  • P'li: Zaheer's girlfriend. A firebender gifted with the rare skill to also create explosions with her mind (Combustionbending). Drove off a dragon using her firebending and combustionbending skills that she hadn't used in 13 years, being locked in a prison built inside a glacier specifically so the cold would prevent her from using her power. Voiced by Kristy Wu.

• Kuvira: The Lord Commander Militant of the Avatar setting. Student of Suyin and former member of the metal bender clan. Cleaned up the mess left behind by the Red Lotus after Suyin refused to step up and founded the Earth Empire, claiming that the concept of kings was outdated.
  • Pretty much Mao Zedong, but make him a hot metalbender. She united the Earth Kingdom by giving them two options: submit or be conquered, but was not above fighting the enemy alone just to cement her superiority. Kind of a Mary Sue, if not a foil to Korra, who also punches her way through her problems.
  • She also built a giant Mecha, utilizing "spirit energy" which is basically the Avatar version of both Nuclear power and the Warp.

Others

• Varrick: The Littlefinger of the Avatar universe. He at first appears to be very eccentric and friendly to Team Avatar, but it turns out he is manipulating entire wars in order to profit off of them. Still manages to be one of the most fun characters in Seasons 2 and 4, respectively. Probably has tons of crack stowed away on many of his boats, which he uses to fund movie production and insane inventions. Always flanked by his secretary/maid/assistant/bodyguard Zhu Li, who always does the thing.

Films

A movie was released in 2010 by M. Night Shyama-*CRUSH*

Ahem, Please ignore the vandal spreading lies above. there is none, as of yet. No movie was ever made that wasn't universally panned by critics and fans alike, blatantly ignored/basterdized the fluff in ways unseen since C. S. Goto, and contained more racewashing than a Marvel comics fanfic collectively written by Tumblr. There are no plans of any movies like the one described in the future, nor was one ever made in the first place.

Any mention of anything resembling a movie set in the Avatar Universe may result in an invitation from the Earth King to Lake Laogai. Remember, there is no Last Airbender movie in Ba Sing Se. All media related to it are just the two TV shows, comics, and video games.

Also, please report sightings of a man by the name of M. Night Shyamalan to your nearest Earth Kingdom constable, as he is wanted for questioning. Do not attempt to apprehend this man by yourself has he is known to destroy anything he is able to grab into an unrecognizable mess.

Games

• There's an Apocalypse World hack for Avatar like stories. (They dropped the sex movies, you perv.)
• There's a Savage Worlds splatbook for Avatar; also some details on Savagepedia. (more links needed)
• "Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple" for the vaguely Asian-setting protagonist gang tries to solve other people's problems & hilarity ensues, with a little magic but there are no hit points so there's no kung-fu roll playing here.
• Jadepunk and Tianxia, both made for the same system as Do, run on the same 'Steam/Dieselpunk through an Eastern Lens' idea as Korra but play it put for actual drama.
• The Way of the Four Elements monastic tradition from 5e is a very obvious homage to The Avatar.
• It doesn't take a genius to see that Avatar was "heavily influenced by" Exalted.
• Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, an officially licensed TTRPG for the setting, produced by Magpie Games. Released on Kickstarter and raised $3 million in the first 3 days.

Books

Starting with the novel The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee, a new subset of the Avatar brand called The Chronicles of the Avatar was created, specifically focusing on the lives of past Avatars before Aang.

There are currently three entries in the series:

• The Rise of Kyoshi, describes the trials and tribulations of Avatar Kyoshi, the Earth Kingdom Avatar preceding Roku, who in turn preceded Aang. She has to struggle with her friend being misidentified as the Avatar far before her, leading to a world-shattering revelation (to give you an idea how little Kyoshi mattered before this, she worked as a maid for the household which provided for the "Avatar" beforehand). This then moves onto the sociopathic Earthbending tutor of her friend seemingly killing him and DEFINITELY killing her father figure, all while hounding her through the entire continent, trying to mold the Avatar into his own personal vision. Kyoshi has to in turn make many compromises with her own moral code in order to evade him, with the eventual goal of killing him for everything he's caused her.

• The Shadow of Kyoshi deals with a slightly older Kyoshi, who's now settled somewhat into her role as Avatar, though still struggling heavily with her own morals and insecurities. Kyoshi has to face down political intrigue in the Fire Nation, as well as her friend Yun who surprise surprise isn't actually dead and is feeling quite pissy at all the people that lied to him about his destiny. Chaos inevitability ensues. Perhaps the most notable consequence of this book is describing the plan to consolidate all the power of the Fire Nation into the crown by Fire Lord Zoryu, which we know now led to the absolute monarchy that initiated the Air Nomad genocide and the Hundred Years War in the original series.

• The Dawn of Yangchen is the latest book in the series so far, with a sequel confirmed. As the name implies, it focuses on Yangchen, an Air Nomad Avatar two generations back from Kyoshi, and a whole four generations before Aang's time. A young Yangchen has to manoeuvre through political minefields dealing with the extremely powerful ruling class of trade-center cities, whose citizens are mistreated and need her help. Also sheds some light onto the origin of Combustionbending, the bending subtype that Combustion Man and P'li used in their respective series.