BOOK 4: AIR EVENT SUMMARY
The wedding of Katara and Aang. Aang has a conversation with Zuko about locating Ursa (Zuko’s mother). Aang informs Zuko that it is within his ability to find her – All things being connected. He is about to look for her when Zuko is forced to depart and deal with an issue of governance. Aang Promises to help Zuko find his mother in the morning.
During the Wedding night after Katara is asleep, Aang uses his powers to make a connection to Ursa – he also notices Azula. He sees that Azula has nightmares about the Avatar coming for her – to drain her bending. Ko the Face Stealer Asks Aang if this is what he is to become. He returns to focus on Ursa but sees that Azula is so much like her mother. Aang realizes that he can heal her and restore Zuko’s family – not just leave it fractured.
Aang vanishes the morning after the wedding night. He appears in Azula’s cage and touches her face telling her she looks so much like her mother. She cowers under his touch in absolute fear. Aang departs the Fire nation Prison where Azula is held taking Azula with him.
Sokka gets a copy of the Fire Nation Library from Zuko. “A Giant Own Spirit knows my name and is angry with me; that’s not something I can live with.” Sokka and Toph depart for the Earth Kingdom to restore the Library of Wan Shi Tong’s lost Fire nation section and appease Wan Shi Tong the Giant Owl Spirit. On the Journey they will retrieve Sokka’s Sword, pass through The Cave of Two Lovers, Omashu, and finally arrive in the Desert in search of the Library where Sokka surrenders himself and the collection of fire nation books and scrolls to the Librarian Wan Shi Tong. While there he asks the great spirit of the Library for a book that Toph can read and would the Library Spirit teach her how to read. Wan Shi Tong Agrees offers to do so if Sokka will surrender his Space Sword. Sokka agrees and Wan Shi Tong metal bends the Sword into a scroll. He has Toph put her hands on the Scroll and metal bends raised lettering on the metal scroll teaching her how to read and ultimately how to write.
After visiting the Library of Wan Shi Tong Sokka and Toph visit her family for a while inviting them to a wedding on Kyoshi Island and departing for the Island of Kyoshi where he will marry Suki. On Kyoshi Island Sokka learns that Aang has long vanished with Azula. Sokka and Toph also learn that Katara is with child.
The Wedding of Suki and Sokka. Toph and Ty Lee get to talking about how they lost out to Suki on getting their hands on Sokka.
Aang who has been constantly monitoring Ursa’s life has not been searching for her. He has been taking Azula all over the world in order to make her whole – to heal her spiritually so that she will accept that she is like her mother.
Without the Avatar’s help Firelord Zuko is increasingly frustrated and concerned as to why it has taken so long for Aang to locate his mother. In the end it is down to Katara to work with Zuko to build a future for the World by creating the idea of a Republic City at the centre of the known World - somewhere near Haru’s Village. Katara continues to find that she is opposed by the Priest class (the Fire Sages) who have been erasing the families of the Avatars from history until the Avatar is more of a Demigod like figure rather than a lineage from which every bender is ultimately descended. Their false mythologies - The Creation Myths of dragons teaching Fire bending, Badger Moles teaching Earth Bending, The ocean and the moon teaching water bending, and the Sky Bison teaching Air bending in conflict with the truth that the first Avatar was an Energy Bender (a Telekinetic) and all bending nations and benders are descended from the Avatar lineage.
Sokka and Toph go in search of Aang on the morning after his wedding night with Suki. Suki is very angry with him for sneaking off with Toph on an adventure abandoning her. A Pregnant Katara and Mei suggest that there is some sort of problem with their men collectively (Mei comments that Zuko did the same thing) and they all look at Zuko like he is guilty of everything. Ty Lee panics and paralyses Zuko. “Oops! Sorry I panicked.”
Aang is on the Lion Turtle meditating with Azula. He is attempting to turn her into a Human being that both Azula and the rest of the world will be happy with. At this time he is teaching her Energy bending. She alone seems to have a natural talent for it that simply requires a greater degree of happiness and good in her life to make her a better person.
Soka and Toph visit June the Bounty-huntress and learn that Aang and Azula are gone from the world. Sokka concludes that they are both together with the Lion-turtle. He realizes that Aang is seeking to teach Azula Energy bending. They can only locate Ursa and they go to find her.
Aang convinces the Lion-turtle to teach Azula Energy bending – the ultimate form of her lightning bending. Consequently Azula’s children will be born randomly as fire benders, Earth benders, Air benders, and Water Benders.
Now Aang and Azula journey to find Zuko’s Mother.
Katara is on the verge of giving birth to her first child in the care of Suki. An Assassin sent by the fire sages to wipe out the Avatar’s family is unable to kill Katara but when the Assassin kills Suki, Katara tears the water from the Assassin’s body killing him and goes into labour. Zuko and Mei take Katara and her un-named child to the Southern Air Temple leaving half the Kyoshi Warriors to guard Katara. Zuko, Mei, Ty Lee, and the remaining Kyoshi warriors return to the Fire nation in search of the source of the Assassin.
The Assassin’s source is revealed and Ursa who has been found by Aang, Azula, Toph, and Sokka is also killed by an Assassin in order to drive a wedge between the Avatar and friends and Zuko. Crushed by what has happened, they seek to return to the Fire nation with her body.
Zuko hears that his mother is returned. He rushes to spot a Woman who looks like his Mother. It turns out to be Azula. The Avatar and Friends are escorting the Body of Azula and Zuko’s mother home. Aang, Sokka, and Toph learn of the assassination attempt on Katara and the Death of Suki. Azula begs the forgiveness of Ty Lee and Mei and Zuko. They see she is a very different Azula.
The Wedding of Zuko and Mei is tinged with both happiness and loss.
Toph takes the remnant Dai Lee to Republic City which is little more than a building site filled with increasing numbers of refugees with a plan to establish a police Force to stop the fighting between factions of benders in the city.
Aang travels to the Southern Air Temple with Sokka and the Kyoshi Warriors to visit Katara and Aang and Katara’s baby Son: Tenzin.
Sokka, Ty Lee, and the Kyoshi Warriors go to Kyoshi Island. While Sokka stares out at the Sea next to Suki’s grave, Ty Lee returns to training Kyoshi Warriors who will all be trained as chi blockers to take the bending abilities from all benders and make everyone equal...
End
Given the series was terminated at the end of Book 3 leaving huge unresolved cliff-hangers, your Thoughts?
Avatar - The Last Airbender series may be the great Scifi we were looking for
You realize that the world of Avatar the Last Airbender is unusual the instant the 'inuit' girl of the Southern Water Tribe named Katara shatters an iceberg with her anger at having to wash her brother's dirty laundry. It soon becomes apparent that while she is she is no anomaly with the emergence of Aang and his 'bison' from the ice and the arrival of Zuko and his ship from the fire nation.
Between these three factions we realize that Telekinesis covers what they can do.
The Haves
The 'Benders' we learn over the course of the series are broken up into four 'elemental' manipulating factions - water, earth, fire, and air - though there are unusual groups like the sand benders (who could be earth or air benders) who seem to be borderline in their talents. Passing through each of these groups is one individual. They have their own creation myths: the earth benders learned from the badgermoles, the water benders from the push and pull of the tides and the moon, and the fire benders from the Sun.
These Benders are the ruling caste for pretty much every society except the Southern Water Tribe which has been thoroughly depopulated of its Water benders.
The Avatar
While there have always been 'benders' - the most powerful is a single entity who is reborn in a cycle taking him or her through the cycle of Air, Water, Earth, Fire for longer than anyone would care to specify. This lineage seems to go back to the beginings of this world to a point when the benders were energy benders. Its obvious that the power is 'genetic' and the Lineage of the Avatar is the source of every bender - despite their creation myths. Genetically the Avatar is the parent of all these benders - The majority of Avatars having families over the many thousands of years. A headcount of statues in the air temple puts it at about 360 avatars and their ages probably average 50-200 so anywhere between 18,000 - 72,000 years since the first fully realized Avatar (we wont get into the idea of Proto-Avatar who had yet to discover fire bending).
The Have Nots
Not every one had the bending ability. Katara's brother Sokka doesnt. Though this may be either through loss of the southern water tribe benders able to teach them as children, because Sokka's Chakkra's are blocked - Fear being a psycological padlock on the mind (likely a result of the death of his mother during hish childhood), or genetic chance. In a world ruled by benders the have nots are considered permanently disadvantaged peasants by those who have the power.
There are non-benders who dont see it that way:
The Chi Blockers have the ability to attack key points on the physical body of a bender and simply take their powers away and leave their bodies paralyzed.
The Kyoshi Warriors - women trained in martial arts by Avatar would be another warrior caste standing against the benders where possible.
In the end you percieve The Lineage to be at the centre of it all. A bloodline from which all telekinetics in this 'world' are descended.
How Technology rose and fell with the Tide
Watching the series you realize that bending has shut down technology. While the Fire nation seems the most advanced - making use of it in the hundred years war it has been running for the last century, this is an aberation. Technology is kept low and thus when it is available it is to the elite few. The childhood toys of the Avatar have amongst their collection what looks like a basis of a helicopter. Machines such as warships, dirigables, submarines, vehicles, and technologies such as siege engines and explosives are all available to those who will develop them but they exist at the whim of the Benders.
What we see is that technology seems to rise and fall with the emergence and fall of tyrants willing to make use of it or control it.
The Wildlife is a tidal wave of Genetic Aberations
The natural world is dominated by weird animals like a Gargantuan sentient Lion Turtle, Penguin-seals, Flying bison, Flying Lemur, Platapus Bears, Koala Otters, and livestock like Riding Birds, and food animals like Pig-Chickens, Sheep-Pigs, and Cow-pigs. So our world is one of genetic modification where an actual Bear named Bosco in the hands of the Earth King of Ba-Sing-Sei is exotic and a one-off.
The Geography is no longer like the Earth we know
The world is changed. The map tells us it is as big as Earth but the Geography is altered. Land exists at the North and South Pole. In a world where every Avatar had the ability to raise an island or sink or divide a continent with telekinetic power is it any wonder.
Religion: Where did God Go?
While Religion as we have known it fell by the wayside - the Avatar - despite the fact he is as human as the rest has access to a superconciousness state known as the Avatar State. This is as much a God like figure as anything. There are temples in each of these regions devoted to the Avatar - and the Priest class associated with these temples have struggled to build a religion in which they have power from the Avatar. The Avatar has a wife or husband and children seems to be the big muddy secret that is kept by the priests from even the ordinary benders. The Idea that there is a Lineage from which all benders are the descendants of the Avatars is a church secret.
A World of Ruins
There are ruins everywhere. Aang, Sokka, and Katara take shelter in a ruined citadel after Sokka falls ill - followed by Katara. In Book of Earth there is a library in the desert filled with as much knowledge as the Avatar Temples seem filled with Avatar generations. Appa the flying bison shelters in a rock shelter that is overgrown by centuries of forest during 'Appa's lost days'. Civilizations have risen and fallen and vanished.
A Scifi tale?
Yes. It has all the aspects of one. A world so far in the future it has changed. A World of Genetic Aberations, Telekinetics, built on the remains of our humanity.
SOZIN’S COMET: PART 4 – DEATH OF SOKKA
They could both feel the bond between them failing. Even Sokka had his limit and that was very close now.
“I’m Sorry Toph! It looks like Boomerang isn’t coming back.” Tears ran from Toph’s eyes. For the second time today she could see death.
Trust me. Sokka didn’t even bother saying the words. He simply let go. The Bond between them had failed and Toph could feel nothing but the rush of air. It would be over in a little while.
Something heavy and fast moving fell against her and a strong hand crushed her to him. Sokka had jumped and would share her fate. She would not die alone. Lips kissed her forehead and she was happy for a moment.
“Hold my hand tightly Toph.” Sokka’s Voice was a comfort. She complied and found he was suddenly pushing her away. Was he below her now? What was he doing?
“When it happens you will feel the earth through my body for a moment. I need you to earth-bend Toph. I need you to live.” Sokka’s final plan emerged.
Toph screamed at the horror of his suggestion but he silenced her.
“In the Cave of Two Lovers, the Badger Moles love a love song.” Horror drowned beneath the Joy of Sokka’s final words. His shoulders went rigid.
Sokka turned and touched the rising earth and in that moment a blind girl holding the hand of the greatest warrior she had ever known could see every part of him.
Toph reached past Sokka to make contact with the earth that was bending to take her fall. A crater formed from the forces unleashed.
Toph Bei Fong lay on the uncaring earth for a long while. No Tears could express the pain she felt at what had just happened to her. For some reason all she could see was Sokka’s Face. The Sight of it blinded her to all else.
“Toph?” The Voice roused her from her suffering. It was Aang. Was it over? How long had she laid there? She hadn’t even noticed his approach. All Toph could see was Sokka. She didn’t even have the strength to stand.
“It’s all right Toph. I’ve got you.” It was Suki. She scooped the blind and helpless girl into her arms.
“How did you find me?” Suki’s grip on the child in her arms tightened but she said nothing. Aang embraced the two of them.
“The crater looks like Sokka’s face from the air.” Toph was taken by surprise at the words; and with a torrent of air all three companions were lifted to the remaining airship.
From the exterior Catwalk Suki carried Toph into the bowls of the Airship. Toph’s hand brushed a metal door and Sokka’s face emerged startling Suki who fell back from it in horror collapsing on the floor. Neither moved until Toph heard Suki’s crying.
“I’m sorry Suki. I’ve lost control of my bending. Sokka’s face is all I see now.” Suki became silent.
“Is the Prisoner still secure?” Suki’s voice was commanding.
“Yes Captain.” The Voice of a Fire nation soldier caught Toph by surprise. He seemed happy someone sane was in charge.
“Prepare to retrieve Survivors. We are returning to the Fire nation.”
“Yes Captain.” Toph relaxed against Suki. Had the fire nation soldier departed?
“Suki? Why did Sokka do that?” Suki understood that Sokka had sacrificed himself for Toph. The name ‘Yue’ came to her and she laughed.
“Do you remember that stupid Play?”
Hmmmm. Three wall of text back to back. I wonder how many responses this thread wil get?
The real question is: How many responses will be about the contents of the wall of text, instead of the size, or people not having read the walls of text.
Perhaps he should take this to a fan-fiction forum?
That would probably work out best.
Perhaps he should take this to a fan-fiction forum?
That would probably work out best.
No. Because this isnt a Fan Fiction write up. This is an All out Avatar Conversation...So I gave you three items to choose from and converse about.
The creators have abandoned the Legend of Aang Setting because Nickelodeon owned the rights to it in favour of the Legend of Korra where the Creators will have a greater ownership. Comment?
The creators have abandoned the Legend of Aang Setting because Nickelodeon owned the rights to it in favour of the Legend of Korra where the Creators will have a greater ownership. Comment?
Better it ended after resolving all the major issues rather than run things into the ground.
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain."
Also, some of your summary seems off. Bending is definitely valued, but almost nobody is especially elitist about it. Hell, even the fire nation doesn't seem especially caught up on it so long as one is loyal to the fire lord (Even with Zuko and Azula it's less about her bending prowess and more about her being better at what she does than he is).
The animals aren't really genetically modified (though I suppose one could argue for that interpretation), more just a mishmash of two types ala the classic D&D style.
And Technology is abundant. Just because it's powered by bending doesn't make it not technology. Although granted most of the world still has an old timey vibe to it. Really it's kind of Magepunk.
Perhaps he should take this to a fan-fiction forum?
That would probably work out best.
No. Because this isnt a Fan Fiction write up. This is an All out Avatar Conversation...So I gave you three items to choose from and converse about.
The creators have abandoned the Legend of Aang Setting because Nickelodeon owned the rights to it in favour of the Legend of Korra where the Creators will have a greater ownership. Comment?
Hmmm... let's see...
you took the Legend of Ang setting, which was created by others, and wrote your own stuff about it. Sounds like fan-fiction to me.
As to the creators favoring the Legend of Korra because they have greator ownership and control... why wouldn't they?