History AvatarTheLastAirbender / TropesAToH

* BareYourMidriff: Quite a few ladies in the show. All the main female characters of the show have done it at least once, and for Ty Lee, it's part of her normal outfit. It also seems to be pretty common in the Fire Nation and seems to even be a normal part of the female soldiers' uniforms.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: Sokka [[spoiler:defeats Combustion Man by throwing his boomerang into the center of Combustion Man's eye tattoo. This causes it to malfunction and explode when he tries to fire his lasers again.]]
** Also, the Gaang use this tactic against the drill attacking Ba Sing Se, in the episode [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "The Drill"]].
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking:
** The show uses this with [[BigBad Fire Lord Ozai]], King Bumi, and to a lesser extent, Azula and Zuko. The Earth King, on the other hand, couldn't fight at all and was being controlled by his EvilChancellor since he was four (though apparently, Earth King authority used to equal asskicking). The warden of "The Boiling Rock" [[spoiler:was a bit of a pushover as well, but at least had [[KillUsBoth the attitude]].]]
** Nearly all of the main characters qualify. While not a really a major authority at the time of show (being gone for a century while people were suffering does not help to endear), the Avatar is considered a sort of King of World and past ones always seemed able to boss around the other rulers a lot. Sokka and Katara are more or less royalty by virtue of being children of the Southern Water Tribe Chief (even though poverty makes them little better than peasants) while Toph is a definitely noble ranked high up in the Earth Kingdom pecking order. Iroh, Pakku, Jeong-Jeong, and even Piandao are also either royalty, nobles, generals or aristocrats. Even Suki, essentially the only member of Team Avatar who can't be construed as anything other than a lowly peasant, is still the commander of her island's warriors by virtue of being [[BadassNormal an asskicker]].

* DualWielding: Both Zuko and Jet prefer dual wielding style. Of course they end up in a [[IncrediblyLamePun dual-wielding duel]] in one episode.

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Incidentally, they're [[MixAndMatchCritters also otters]].

* EpicFail: Hahn, a conceited water tribe leader, uncovers his disguise and charges at Iroh and the Fire General Zhao on their ship. Iroh and the General Zhao just step out of the way, Zhao easily flings him overboard, and Hahn falls in the water. Then Iroh and the General resume their merry war conversation as if nothing happened. Hahn couldn't even learn his name, calling him "Admiral Choi."

* DearJohnLetter: In "The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion," Zuko writes a letter to Mai [[spoiler:about leaving her and the Fire Nation, so that he can help Aang defeat his father and end the war. She is not amused by the letter.]]

* TheChick: Katara qualifies, but also has elements of TheLancer.

** Katara graduated to this, as well as full-on [[MakingASplash master Waterbender]], after she received some proper training at the tail end of Book One.

** [[DishingOutDirt Toph]] is a [[CuteBruiser small]] [[DisabilitySuperpower blind girl]] who beats up a half dozen larger, older and more experienced Earthbenders in her introductory episode.

'''Tropes A to H''' ([[BigBad/AvatarTheLastAirbender Big Bad]], [[ChekhovsGun/AvatarTheLastAirbender Chekhov's Gun]], [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/AvatarTheLastAirbender Deconstructed Character Archetype]], [[Foil/AvatarTheLastAirbender Foil]], [[Foreshadowing/AvatarTheLastAirbender Foreshadowing]], [[HiddenDepths/AvatarTheLastAirbender Hidden Depths]]) | AvatarTheLastAirbender/TropesIToP | AvatarTheLastAirbender/TropesQToZ ([[RedOniBlueOni/AvatarTheLastAirbender Red Oni, Blue Oni]], [[RunningGag/AvatarTheLastAirbender Running Gag]], [[ShipTease/AvatarTheLastAirbender Ship Tease]], [[ShoutOut/AvatarTheLastAirbender Shout-Out]], [[ShownTheirWork/AvatarTheLastAirbender Shown Their Work]], [[WhamEpisode/AvatarTheLastAirbender Wham Episode]])]]]]-]

'''Tropes A to H''' ([[ChekhovsGun/AvatarTheLastAirbender Chekhov's Gun]]) | AvatarTheLastAirbender/TropesIToP | AvatarTheLastAirbender/TropesQToZ ([[ShipTease/AvatarTheLastAirbender Ship Tease]], [[ShoutOut/AvatarTheLastAirbender Shout-Out]], [[ShownTheirWork/AvatarTheLastAirbender Shown Their Work]], [[WhamEpisode/AvatarTheLastAirbender Wham Episode]])]]]]-]

** Initially there were plans to reveal that Momo, Aang's pet lemur, was actually the reincarnation of his old Airbending teacher, Monk Gyatso. This was vaguely alluded to several times throughout the series, but ended up being scrapped.

** Toph's parents are mostly just neglectful, sheltering and coddling their girl instead of respecting her earthbending skills, but sending bounty hunters after her when she runs off (and assuming she must have been kidnapped by the Avatar) crosses over into stupidity.

** One of the themes of the story overall is that taking shortcuts will just lead to more trouble. Every time a character tries to take the quick and easy path the result is disaster. Examples include both Aang and Zuko trying to learn advanced firebending when they haven't got the basics down, the Earth Kingdom general trying to induce Aang into the Avatar State by threatening a third party only for him to [[GoneHorriblyRight get exactly what he wanted]], The events of the Day Of Black Sun where the other nations try to end the war before Aang has mastered the elements, and so on. Conversely patience is shown as a virtue, exemplified by Bumi's lesson to Aang on the subject of neutral jing. Positive jing is attacking, negative jing is retreating and neutral jing is doing nothing at all until the time is right to use either positive or negative jing.

** In the episode "The Deserter", Aang discovers a Firebending master and is eager to learn firebending. The master is reluctant because he knows Aang has not mastered water and earth (and true focus) yet. To start with baby steps, the master gives Aang a tiny leaf to burn in a very controlled fashion, [[CynicalMentor though he doesn't bother to explain the lesson's purpose]]. But an impatient Aang yearns to show off his potential and creates giant flames that badly burn Katara, much to his horror. Distraught, Aang decides he will never firebend again and suppresses his firebending abilities (until the later 3rd season). Katara reminds Aang that he has to learn firebending someday, just not now. Even if you feel you have more potential, dangerous lessons must be learned gradually. And if you mess up real terribly, it does not mean you must abandon learning it; you will learn it someday, but not today. A later third season episodes completes the Aesop that a dangerous ability can be beautiful and vital once you understand control and its meaning. Zuko and Aang learn this when [[spoiler:they witness the last two dragons on Earth fire beautiful flames around them without burning them.]]

* AirAidedAcrobatics: The entire point of [[BlowYouAway airbending]] is basically this trope.

* AllMonksKnowKungFu: Every single one of the Air Nomads knew airbending due to their culture's high level of spirituality. Also, the Fire Sages are all master firebenders.
** Justified in-universe, since bending is a highly spiritual discipline.

** The rest of the world's general opinion of firebenders, along with BadPowersBadPeople.

** One can even initially perceive the element of Fire itself as this, as most depictions earlier in the show show it as destructive and violent. Later also subverted fully in "The Firebending Masters", where Aang and Zuko find out that at its core, Fire is energy and life, and that modern Firebending is a weakened corruption of its true teachings.

** Earthbending, firebending, and airbending were developed by observing the "original benders" -- badger-moles, dragons, and flying bison, respectively.
** When [[spoiler:Zuko and Aang]] sought out the original firebending masters, they were brought to [[spoiler:the last two surviving dragons]], who taught them an ancient firebending form called "The Dancing Dragon."
** Toph Beifong learned her unique earthbending style after encountering badger-moles as a small girl. In a meta-example, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Praying_Mantis the real-world martial art on which her style is based]] is inspired by the postures taken by the praying mantis.

* ArmorIsUseless: The rank-and-file soldiers of the three extant nations are all fairly well-armored, but it doesn’t ever seem to help them against bending or more conventional weaponry.

** He's not a bender, but Jet knows martial arts and could be considered one of these as well.

* AscendedFridgeHorror: In "The Puppetmaster", Katara [[spoiler:learns she can use her waterbending on the blood in people's bodies to control them like puppets]].

* AsinineAlternateActivity: Toph's parents were unwilling to let her practice any tougher earthbending than controlled forms and breathing exercises. Toph's preference? Underground earthbender show wrestling. She snuck into those under her parents' noses.

%%** All signs point to [[spoiler:Fire Lord Azulon]] not being a very nice person. WordOfGod and background material show him as [[spoiler:ruling the Fire Nation with an iron fist and carrying out the war against the other nations with brutality only matched by Ozai. He ordered the genocide against the Southern Water Tribe's waterbenders and the raids carried out against the tribe (these raids eventually resulted in the death of Katara's mother). He was willing to have his innocent grandson killed just to prove a point to Ozai.]] Other than possibly Iroh, [[spoiler:it's unlikely anyone really missed him when Ozai and Ursa killed him.]]

* BadassNormal: In a world where most combatants are profficient masters of the elements, Sokka, Hakoda, Suki, Ty Lee, Mai, Jet and Piandao stand out for being capable warriors who fight only with their fists and basic weapons. The "Sokka's Master" episode lampshades this, with Sokka deciding to become a swordmaster after realizing how ineffective he was in a battle compared to his friends.
%%* BadBadActing: "The Ember Island Players". Also, when the Gaang tries to get Katara arrested for earthbending in "Imprisoned".

* BadPowersBadPeople: At the start of the series, the overall public opinion is that all those who are capable of firebending are inherently evil. Sokka lampshades this when Aang tries to learn said technique, calling it "jerkbending". Gets gradually subverted as the series progresses, until it's ''completely'' subverted in Book 3, where the philosophy of firebending is explored, and it's revealed that firebending is supposed to be powered by willpower rather than anger, and this new practice has considerably weakened modern firebenders. Notably, Aang uses firebending in tandem with the other elements during his fight with Ozai.
** Played straight with Bloodbending (which is ironically a variation of waterbending), which is the only bending art ''never'' presented in a positive way; the only practitioner is Hama, who uses it to avenge herself on the Fire Nation by terrorizing the people of a local village, and tries to get Katara to continue her work. When Katara does eventually use it, she breaks down in tears afterwards. The only other time Katara does use it, it's presented her as quickly succumbing to her worst emotions in pursuit of the man who killed her mother.

** In "The Drill", Mai and Ty Lee launch an attack on a group of earthbenders. However, the episode focuses exclusively on Ty Lee's battle, as Mai's [[FlechetteStorm fighting style]] would result in scenes that are too graphic for a cartoon aimed mainly at kids.

* BenevolentConspiracy: [[spoiler: The Order Of The White Lotus, dedicated to fostering understanding between the Four Nations, and which many of the heroes' mentors belong to.]]

** We learn in the third season that [[PredecessorVillain Fire Lord Sozin]] and [[SpiritAdvisor Avatar Roku]] were lifelong friends until they grew apart when Sozin revealed that [[WhiteMansBurden he wanted to conquer the rest of the world in order to forcibly "share" the Fire Nation's prosperity and technological advances]]. After being forbidden from doing this by Roku, the two didn't talk for many years until the volcano on Roku's home island had a sudden, titanic eruption, and Sozin, who was in a nearby boat, came to help the evacuation. When Roku was poisoned and weakened by the volcanic gas, Sozin realized that if Roku died he could move ahead with his conquest plans after all, and promptly left his friend to die.
* BeyondTheImpossible: Bumi being able to bend with just his face. Later Toph creating metal bending, bonus points as she's told it's impossible several times while teaching herself to metal bend.

** Season 1: [[SmugSnake Zhao]] and [[AntiVillain Prince Zuko]], in a BigBadEnsemble sense. While Zuko is more persistent Zhao is more dangerous, ultimately overshadowing Zuko in his invasion of the North.

** Also Sokka in "The Cave Of Two Lovers", when he finds he's stuck in the titular caves with a bunch of hippies.
** Also Aang in the desert [[spoiler:when he's looking for Appa after he was stolen]].

* BittersweetEnding: In "Zuko Alone", Zuko saves the boy he befriended and frees the town from the corrupt Earth Kingdom soldiers, but is shunned and forced to leave after exposing himself as a firebender.

* BizarreAlienSenses: Toph's ability to "see" using earthbending. It is very unusual when you think about it since it requires forming "images" through contact with the ground. The closest equivalent in real life would be how snakes and elephants can detect low-frequency sounds through vibrations in the ground as well.

** BlackAndGreyMorality: Concerning the war between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom itself, it becomes this. The Fire Nation as a whole is basically a fascist empire trying to take over the world, and among their methods of dealing with the enemy include imprisoning civilian earth benders and emotionally breaking them, and dressing up captured soldier in their own armour and sending them to the front lines without weapons to be slaughtered by their own forces. The Earth Kingdom however are mostly trying to fight them off, but their soldiers can sometimes be incredibly corrupt, their leaders are willing to do unspeakably horrible things in an attempt to find some advantage.

** When Azula is losing it she starts randomly banishing people for the slightest hint of what she percieves as treachery or potential future trechery. When she does this to the Dai Li they just silently depart in an orderly fashion that's actually quite amusing in its way.
** That's nothing compared to what she does to Li and Lo. She orders them to fight a Agni-Kai. When they point out that they're not firebenders she banishes one of them, but neither are sure which one just got banished.

* BlatantLies: Azula is so good that LivingLieDetector Toph can't read her with her bending, with Azula delivering an especially blatant lie:.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: When Zuko and Iroh hidde in the fire nation, they give each other fake names to hide their identity: Zuko is Li, and Iroh is 'Mushi'. These names were left unchanged in the German version - but in German, 'Mushi' sounds like a quite vulgar word which is highly unappropriate for a kid's show[[note]]"Muschi", which translates to "pussy"[[/note]].

* BlowYouAway: Airbending, of whom Aang is the only practitioner during this series, allows one to manipulate the air itself, producing powerful gusts of wind and manipulating it to one's advantage. Airbenders are exceptionally agile and can easily fly with a glider, but airbending relies a lot on evading rather than blocking and lacks the offensive power of other disciplines. Typical moves involve blowing away opponent with a powerful wind, ride on a ball of wind for increased speed and maneuverability and the occasional RazorWind.
* BlueMeansCold: Zigzagged for the waterbenders. Yes, they wear blue, and yes, they live in the cold, but the blue might just be from the water association.
* BluffTheEavesdropper: Azula has Mai and Ty Lee purposely reveal that they're Fire Nation in disguise... to the pair of Dai Li agents they knew were eavesdropping, overhead. She knows they'll ferry the news back to [[EvilChancellor Long Feng]], and that he won't be able to resist the opportunity to use it against her. So she isn't surprised when those same agents bring her to his cell, where he coerces her into helping him under threat of exposing her to the Earth King. Azula "reluctantly" agrees. It doesn't end well for Long Feng.
* BluntNo: In the episode "The Waterbending Master," when Katara learned that Master Paku will not teach her in his class because she's a girl, she angrily tells him that she didn't traveled from the South to the North just for him to tell her "no." He does just that.

** In the beginning, Zuko rages at Iroh over the latter's training focusing on basic firebending. Later, we see that Zuko's mastery of the most basic part of firebending, control of one's breathing, gives him a resilience to cold that other firebenders can't match.

* BrainBleach: Zuko alone goes through a lifetime supply of the stuff. His grey-matter must have been white by the end of the series:

** Very much the same reaction from Zuko when Uncle Iroh stands up from the hotspring in his birthday suit.
** When Li and Lo try to do the same pose they did [[IWasQuiteALooker when they were young, beautiful women,]] Zuko practically throws up. Mai is kind enough to cover Zuko's eyes when the pair later remove their robes to show off their bikinis. The audience probably did the same.
* BrainsVersusBrawn: On Team Avatar, Sokka is TheSmartGuy, specifically TheStrategist who comes up with many of the team's plans for infiltration and escape. He is also the weakest for the majority of the series in terms of combat capability as the primary sole non-bender of the team. He is contrasted first with Katara, and later with [[TheBigGuy Toph]]. Toph is rude, crude, BookDumb, and one of the strongest earth benders in the entire Avatar world. Their friendship is portrayed as VitriolicBestBuds, with Toph antagonizing Sokka most of the time. Over the course of the series we learn that Toph is much more StreetSmart than she initially comes off and Sokka learns swordsmanship to compensate, pushing them closer to the second variant of this trope and to ForceAndFinesse in terms of combat.

** "The Ember Island Players", the [[LampshadeHanging well-lit]] last episode before the four-episode finale arc. Plus it comes immediately after "The Southern Raiders".

* BreathWeapon: Iroh isn't called the "Dragon Of The West" for nothing. It's implied other Firebenders can also breathe fire, but no-one can quite match Iroh's massive stream of flame.

** In the Book 1 episode "The Deserter", Sokka tries some Fire Flakes, which are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pretty hot]], but it's made much funnier when we meet [[TheStoic Mai]] a season later in "Return To Omashu" and she snacks down on them like they're nothing.

** In the beginning of Book 3, Aang makes a picture of Fire Lord Ozai at school. In "Nightmares and Daydreams" it's put on a tree so Aang can train.

** In book one Sokka is trapped in the spirit world for a whole day and afterwards claims he really needs the bathroom, In book 3 Katara asks if they have bathrooms in the spirit world to which Sokka replies "As a matter of fact, they do not"

** Also Azula in "The Awakening".

*** [[JustifiedTrope To be fair to Zuko,]] Sokka didn't recognise Suki the first time he saw her without makeup either, and ''he'' actually had a conversation with her.
* ButThatIWouldBelieve: After Zuko's (legitimate) HeelFaceTurn, he offers to join the Gaang and teach Aang fire-bending, but they're obviously hesitant to believe his reformation is genuine. So he switches tactics and offers himself up as their prisoner, hoping to invoke this. They aren't interested in that either and send him away.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: "Penguins". Played for laughs and subverted with the Earth King's pet bear; the crew goes on to name various animals that could be combined, but are left perplexed as it just says 'bear'. This trope is pulled throughout the entire universe of Avatar, which lends more humor to the situation.

* CallToAgriculture: Subverted. The man who killed Katara's mother has a garden and it is implied that he spends quite some time on it, but [[spoiler:he is still the cold and heartless man he was when he was an Admiral.]] It's just hard to tell because Katara is being ''really'' scary, and he's already a coward anyway.
** During Season 2 and at the end of the GrandFinale, [[spoiler:Uncle Iroh is "Called To Tea Service".]]

** Though he's only ''partially'' correct himself, Jet goes through this when trying to warn people that Zuko and Iroh are firebenders that are trying to infiltrate the city. (He's right about the firebenders part.) After spending several days trying to get proof, he loses all credibility when he decides to suddenly attack them in front of a bunch of customers to get them to firebend in defense, which leads to [[spoiler:his capture and Brainwashing by the [[SecretPolice Dai Li]].]]

* CharacterDrivenStrategy: Invoke. Pai Sho is a FictionalBoardGame that is popular among the various nations in the world. One of the tiles used, the White Lotus Tile, is described as a tile that is [[UnderestimatingBadassery often underestimated by most players, but can be effective for more skilled players with the experience and wisdom to use it effectively]]. [[spoiler: It's revealed in the third and final season of the show that the tile is the calling card to the Order of the White Lotus, a BenevolentConspiracy that transcends national borders meant to preserve and share "philosophy, beauty, and truth," using specific moves in the game to pass information onto one another. Many of its members are older men who have proven to be wise and a little eccentric, including Prince Iroh, King Bumi of Omashu, Jeong Jeong the Deserter, Master Pakku and Master Piandao.]]
* CharacterTitle: The title refers to Aang, our protagonist. He is both the Avatar and the last of the airbenders.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Anyone with an extended lifespan is doing so through nonbending means; for instance, the Guru and Avatar Kyoshi both lived over 150 years, even though the Guru has no bending ability. King Bumi is at least 112 years old, but he doesn't look as good as the others do.

* ChaseScene: "The Waterbending Scroll". Also almost the entirety of the appropriately named episode "The Chase."

** Subverted with Haru in the episode "Imprisoned". He saves an old man with his illegal earthbending. Old man turns him in...
* ChekhovsGag: In the earliest episodes, Katara had a tendency to mess up her waterbending, and Sokka would get drenched. In "The Waterbending Master" Katara redirects a stream of water during a fight. Sokka gets blasted away by it, even though ''everyone else'' around him is just fine.

** The benders seen in the opening credits are not introduced for some time, if at all:
*** The waterbender is Pakku.
*** The earthbender was the original design for Toph before the creators decided to make her a girl instead (which got reused for Avatar Roku's earthbending teacher). It is also speculated that the Earthbender is the Boulder.
*** The firebender is Azula.

*** However, the airbender (often mistaken for Aang) never appears at all.

** The married couple that Zuko almost attacks in Zuko Alone reappear as refuges in the Serpent's Pass.

** Iroh redirects lightning in Season 1 when it nearly strikes their ship. [[spoiler:He teaches it to Zuko in Season 2 and it saves his life when Ozai attempts to kill him, and later Zuko teaches it to Aang who uses it in his own battle with Ozai.]]
** Zuko using firebending to hold off hypothermia in "The Siege of the North" comes in handy when he gets locked in the cooler in "The Boiling Rock". (Which is arguably ''less fatal than freezing water'', but still impressive.)

* TheChick: Katara qualifies but also has elements of TheLancer.

** Aang is the youngest master airbender ever, at age twelve, and mastered all three other elements in less than a year, a feat that usually takes the avatar years to achieve.
** Toph [[spoiler:invented metalbending, previously thought to be impossible]], and is arguably the best earthbender in the world at twelve years old.
** Katara progressed from being a novice waterbender to the best student in the class in what was apparently a matter of weeks and was so good she was entrusted by Pakku to finish Aang's waterbending training. She picked up [[spoiler:bloodbending]], an extremely rare ability, and was able to use it at will, having never done it before, after simply having it explained to her. She also [[spoiler:managed to heal both Aang and Zuko from what should have been fatal wounds]].

** Katara was destined to be Aang's waterbending master. She always believed the Avatar would return and she released him from the iceberg. Gran Gran told her that their destinies "are now intertwined."
** Toph was first seen as a vision and was therefore destined to be Aang's earthbending master.
** Zuko (who, in keeping with the pattern of this series' use of this trope, is destined to be Aang's firebending master) just happened to be passing through the South Pole when Aang was discovered in the iceberg. He also found out that [[spoiler:Avatar Roku was his great-grandfather and that his destiny was intertwined with that of the Avatar.]] Aang even admits this outright.

* ClingyAquaticLife: In "Return to Omashu", the purple pentapus was seen in a bucket filled with water and inside a sewer when the gang used it to enter Omashu. They are known to be clingy unless they're stroked on the head, and leave behind spots which the characters used to fake a disease, "pentapox".

* CloseCallHaircut: Happens to Azula in the Season 2 finale, thanks to Katara's master waterbending skills.

* CluelessAesop: Through Toph, the show tries to present the aesop that you shouldn't treat people as completely helpless just because they're disabled, as they may have other talents to compensate for their shortcomings. Of course, Toph's seismic sense are so overpowered that it basically make up for her being blind most of the time, making it difficult to actually consider her "disabled" in the first place.

* CloseRangeCombatant: Most non-bending fighters are this.

*** Notable are Kyoshi Island in the Earth Kingdom (where many wear blue) and the Foggy Swamp Tribe (a Water Tribe in the titular swamp garbed in green and brown)

** Azula's blue fire (which indicates her cold, cruel detachment; it also shows her as a firebending prodigy since blue fire burns hotter) vs. Zuko's red (to indicate his heated emotional nature). Interestingly, the color combination was reversed for Aang and Ozai when they were [[spoiler:energybending]] in the Finale.
** The color of benders' eyes correspond to the color of their element (green for earthbenders, blue for waterbenders, gold for firebenders, grey for airbenders) and to some degree, everyone's eyes tend to correspond to their nationality in this way as well (which makes one wonder why [[spoiler:no one suspected the blue/green/grey-eyed bunch of youngsters tramping around the Fire Nation of being the exact bunch of foreign youngsters they were expecting to try to overthrow the Fire Lord. In fact, Aang is identified as a foreigner on the first day, and they all begin to tell people they are "from the colonies."]]).
*** It could also be noted that, within the Fire Nation, eye colour does differ from person to person, often appearing to be coded by the characters alliance. For example, Zuko's eyes are light amber, signifying that, while he starts on the bad side, he is really good, Zhao's are dark orange, showing that he is ultimately corrupted, Azulas are so dark they are almost brown, and Iroh's are a nice pumpkiny yellow, showing his true alligence to the light.

** After Iroh & Zuko have been working in the tea shop in Ba Sing Se for a little while, word travels across the city about how excellent the tea is there. Iroh is eventually paid a visit by a pair of wealthy investors who offer to provide him the capital to establish his own business, an offer he enthusiastically accepts. His boss flies into a panic (knowing his business is finished if Iroh quits and sets up as competition), and offers to make him... assistant manager. When that doesn't work he bumps it up to... ''senior'' assistant manager.

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Played with Sokka. Sometimes [[TheSmartGuy he's the Brains of the group]]. Sometimed it's played straight, but in such a ridiculous manner that it's parodying this trope. He tends to be right when it matters, though.
* ConfirmationBias: An in-universe example in the series finale. Aang contacted the spirits of the previous four Avatars in the hopes that they would tell him that his waffling on whether or not to kill Ozai was justified. Each one of them failed to give him the answer he wanted, so he moved on to the next Avatar hoping they would tell him what he wanted to hear, in Kyoshi's case even saying "I knew I shouldn't have asked Kyoshi".

** The umbrella from "The Fortuneteller" is found in Appa's luggage by sandbenders in "Appa's Lost Days".

** The Badger Moles make their first appearance in "The Cave of Two Lovers", and are referenced even before that with a Badger Mole statue briefly seen in The Blue Spirit. Toph later mentions how she learned earthbending from the Badger Moles. Additionally, the Badger Moles are seen briefly in season 2, episode 6 when Aang first decides that Toph should be his earth bending master. The moles are fixing the arena after the previous battles.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Inconsistently played straight and averted. A particularly egregious example can be found in "The Awakening": Aang is standing among streams of lava, some of which flows literally between his feet. He sticks his wooden glider to the ground and leaves, and the glider immediately catches a fire and burns, but somehow this terrible heat doesn't bother Aang (or the other members of his gang) at all. So convection clearly exists, but it doesn't appear to affect humans. The creators have {{Handwaved}} this as Aang using airbending to insulate himself from convection, which would also explain why Aang didn't need to wear warm clothing when visiting the poles while Sokka and Katara did.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: It's eventually a source of some angst, but early on the kids have free rein to go on adventures because their parents are gone. The other airbenders died fighting the Fire Nation, while Katara and Sokka's mother was killed in a raid. Their father went off to fight two years before the series began, and they don't know whether or not he's still alive. [[spoiler:Sokka only finds him again toward the end of season 2.]] Toph is the exception, running away from her wealth family to join the Gaang -- her parents eventually send a pair of bounty hunters to round her up.
* ConvenientlyInterruptedDocument: The Fire Nation (heavily implied to be Zhao) burned away references to The Day Of Black Sun, and indeed, any references to the Fire Nation at all in Wan Shi Ton's library (which served as the last straw for the spirit, and caused him to become hostile to humans).

* CoolAirship: In what doubles as one of the biggest OhCrap moments of the series, in season 3 the Fire Nation revealed that it DID steal the hot air balloon technology. [[spoiler:They have perfected War Zeppelin technology in the meantime, building up a terrifying armada of them. They aren't just heavily armed with firebenders, cannons, and bombs; they also overwhelm and annihilate the heroes' escape route and give the villains—notably Azula—go-anywhere transportation.]] And they are ''undeniably'' cool.

* CouldHaveBeenMessy: Many, ''many'' cases, on both sides. [[ThouShaltNotKill Aang will not kill people]]. He will, however, dump an avalanche of snow on top of masses of enemy soldiers while they're walking across a sheer mountain pathway seemingly very high up, sending them hurtling off. Just so long as the aftermath is unseen we can safely assume no one got hurt. Right?
** The one time he ''does'' kill something (and when it was totally unnecessary) its body is seen falling to the ground in the distance, darkened by the rising sun. The fleeing buzzard wasp's body was apparently split in half by his airbending, but we can't really see the details.
** Furthermore, waterbenders often create blades or spikes out of ice that ''never'' actually pierce or cut anybody. Everybody escapes just in time from being squished by the rocks earthbenders regularly drop on their oponents and even though most firebenders are shown as cruel, ruthless soldiers, the only serious burn in the whole series (the one that gave Zuko his scar) happens offscreen.
* CounterAttack: This is the main method used by waterbenders for offense. Waterbending is a primarily defensive art, but one of the principles of this element is redirecting your opponent's energy and turning it against them, which allows waterbenders' defense to become their offense.
** One of the few defensive moves in firebending works like this: lightning redirection, a technique that Iroh invented specifically by studying waterbenders. Firebenders utilize this technique by allowing the energy in their bodies to flow, causing the lightning to follow it. This allows them to guide the lightning back out in the direction of their choosing, usually back at the opponent who used it against them in the first place.

** Katara and Toph take full body mud baths in their spa day in "Tales of Ba Sing Se". Toph uses earthbending to traumatize the spa employee during her CucumberFacial.
** "The Runaway" Katara and Toph get into an argument that turns into something of a mudwrestling match because of their water and earthbending abilities respectively.

* CrapsackWorld: The entire world became ravaged by war when Aang came out from his century-long hibernation in the iceberg. Entire Air Nomads had been exterminated, except for Aang who survived thanks to being frozen just before their demise. The Northern Water Tribe isolated themselves while their kins in the south have been battered into a collection of scattered villages whose water benders had been almost hunted to extinction. While the Earth Kingdom still stands, their constantly-losing lands have become ravaged and many of their citizens being enslaved by Fire Nation for menial labor. Even many of the (relatively few) places that are largely untouched by the war like [[spoiler: Ba Sing Se before Azula's coup and what we see of the Fire Nation in Book 3]] are implied or outright shown to be propaganda filled police states. All of this tragedy stemmed from Sozin who left the previous avatar, Roku, to perish and turned his entire nation into militaristic conquerors along with erasing its more-peaceful aspects. [[spoiler: Though by the end of the series, the entire war came to a close with Aang's erasure of the Firelord's bending ability and ascension of [[TheGoodKing Zuko]] as the new Firelord. Though there were [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise many]] [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheRift post-war]] [[Comicbook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSmokeAndShadow issues]] between this series and WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra, seventy years after the series had been much [[WorldHalfFull better]] than ever.]]

* CripplingTheCompetition: In the finale, [[spoiler:Aang uses Energybending to rob Fire Lord Ozai of his ability to firebend, taking away the threat he poses to the world without breaking Aang's ThouShaltNotKill policy]].

** In the Siege of the North Part 1, when talking about getting the Ocean and Moon Spirits' support, Aang says that, "Maybe they'll unleash a crazy amazing spirit attack on the Fire Nation." Both Yue and Katara give him weird looks. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Guess what happens]] [[CurbStompBattle next episode?]]
** Just before the series finale, Aang suggests, as an alternative to killing, that he simply encase Ozai's limbs in glue so he can't bend anymore. [[spoiler:Alas, no glue is to be found, but Aang discovers a non-lethal way to stop Ozai, taking his bending and leaving him powerless.]]
* CucumberFacial: Katara and Toph's story in "Tales of Ba Sing Se" has them get one, complete with mud face mask. Toph earthbends the mud pack to look like a monster and scare one of the spa workers.

%%* CulturedBadass: Many examples, but Iroh is undoubtedly the greatest.%%Please explain the other "many" examples and how Iroh qualifies before uncommenting this.

** The first on-screen fight between Zuko and Azula. Azula doesn't even ''bother'' with her bending for most of the fight, effortlessly avoiding her brother's attacks and only firebending when she's done toying with him. If Iroh hadn't intervened, Zuko's story would have ended right then with a lightning bolt to the face.

** Jeong Jeong feels this way about firebending, claiming that Firebenders destroy themselves trying to control themselves. He laments that he is not a Waterbender instead.

* CuteBruiser: Toph. While small and not muscular, she has a BoisterousBruiser personality, her earthbending allows her to shatter boulders with casual ease, and she's the go-to team member for sheer brute force.

* DarkIsNotEvil: More like [[InvertedTrope light is not evil]], but after 2 and a half seasons of Aang considering firebending as something akin to the dark arts, it’s revealed that the Fire Nation perverted it’s nature through rage and destruction. Its true source is energy and life.

* DeclarationOfPersonalIndependence: Toph, who also happens to be a badass Earthbending genius who invented metalbending. Her father treats her like she's helpless when she's probably one of the strongest people in the world and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. When Aang and the gang show up asking her to teach him earth-bending and join him on his journey she tries to convince her father to let her, but she ends up having to run away when he refuses to believe it, even after seeing her wipe the floor with some mooks. He even sends people after her to get her back. It doesn't work. The series ends without any resolution in regards to whether they made up or not.(Although the comic book continuation known as ''The Rift'' would have them reconcile.)

--> '''Zuko:''' How am I supposed to convince these people that I'm on their side? What would Uncle do? [Impersonating his Uncle, pacing and holding up his finger] ''Zuko, you must look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. Only then will your true self reveal itself''. [Dropping the impersonation and getting frustrated] Even when I'm talking for him I can't figure out what he means!
* DeepSouth: All the swampbenders have hillbilly accents and seem adamantly opposed to wearing pants/shirts/shoes.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: In "The Siege of the North" arc, when the moon spirit is killed, everything becomes black and white, except for Yue's eyes or when lit up by light from fire or water bending.

* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: Played with. Zuko brings things from the house to burn in the episode where he, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee go to Ember Island. The house gets destroyed properly some episodes later as he attacks Aang in the process of training him in firebending.

* DieOrFly: Used twice. Toph [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this by rolling a boulder at Aang in an attempt to get him to learn earthbending. Aang [[SubvertedTrope jumps out of the way to keep from being squished]]. The scene is mirrored later in the episode, when he has to defeat an angry Saber-Toothed Moose Lion, and successfully gets the "stand your ground" mindset required for earthbending. Season 3 has a semi-straight example: Katara learns [[spoiler:[[PeoplePuppets Bloodbending]] on her first attempt to stop Hama from making Sokka kill Aang.]]

** Toph's enhanced senses and earthbending prowess as a result of her blindness. Played with in that her seismic sense can be learned by other, non-blind, characters, but no one displays the same mastery of it that she does.

* DiscOneNuke: The trope is toyed with after Aang finds out about the coming comet; he ALMOST learns fire-bending (sequence breaking the order he is supposed to learn the elements). He's actually quite powerful with just a small bit of instruction, but after he loses control and hurts Katara, both he and his teacher decide he is not ready.

* DishingOutDirt: Earthbending allows one to manipulate the very earth beneath, as well as rock or sand. Thanks to the durability of the material, it is easy for earthbenders to rely on physical defense while having strong attacks and still having a fair degree of versability with some imagination. However, earthbenders must have access to earth to be effective and are powerless at sea. Typical moves involves hurling boulders at enemies, creating walls of earth or digging tunnels in the ground.

%%*** This bites her in the ass (or the soles, if you will) just after [[spoiler:Zuko's HeelFaceTurn (like, right just after)]], when she spooks Zuko at night in the woods, then doesn't respond when a wary exile with no one in the world he can trust calls out "who goes there". Predictably, the lack of response makes Zuko assume he's under attack and try to scare off his attacker by scorching their boots; boots which you may remember Toph doesn't wear.

** In a broader example, the fire nation in particular evokes Japan in the years before and during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and the cult of personality surrounding the Fire Lord has echoes of China under Chairman Mao.
** The Fire Nation's school ritual for all students to recite their undying loyalty to their nation every morning before class starts, invokes the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States.

* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Averted. During "The Swamp" when the tornado closes in on Appa the wind catches Sokka ''before'' they touch the funnel cloud.

* DramaBomb: The second season finale. There had been a gradual build up of conflict and drama in the episodes leading up to it, but it all came to a head in that episode with the force of a nuclear explosion.

* DreadZeppelin: one of the war vehicles the Mechanist made for the Fire Nation was a hot air balloon. It ended up being used against the Fire Nation, but they found its wreckage and reverse-engineered it to make war zeppelins. They use them to devastating effect on the Day of Black Sun to compensate for the loss of firebending. In the series finale, Ozai takes a fleet of zeppelin and comet-boosted firebenders to start burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground.

* EarnedStripes: When Airbenders are recognized as masters they are give blue arrow tattoos that follow chi lines from their forehead, to their hands and feet. Aang was one of the youngest to ever wear tattoos at age 12.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: The setting is a century-long war spanning most of the world and the heroes have spent months struggling to defeat an overpowering foe whose army was gaining the upper hand almost every time. Sacrifices were made, and the finale has the BigBad at his most powerful, capable of destroying an entire continent with his forces. [[spoiler:At the end of the Finale, ''all'' of the [[EverybodyLives good guys alive at the start of the finale are still here]], there are [[OfficialCouple three romantic pairs among them]], the war ended [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil without either side getting reduced to paste]], Ozai is sentenced to life in prison, Zuko gets to be Fire Lord, and [[RetiredBadass Iroh]] [[IJustWantToBeNormal gets his tea shop back]]. Aang is able to make it all happen WITHOUT sacrificing his personal or ethical values.]] Which doesn't come easy either; his friends, his allies ''and'' [[spoiler:his prior incarnations - even the previous airbender incarnation that he expected to agree with him -]] were against him in that matter.

** Under Omashu there is an underground war base.
%%* ElementalAbsorption: Although not considered an element in universe, redirecting lightning surely counts.%%How and why?
* ElementalBaggage: Averted; firebenders are the only benders who can "create" their element. Benders from the other three nations require the appropriate amount of material in their immediate area to be useful, and it's even made a plot point at times when a bender (specifically earthbenders and waterbenders) are rendered powerless by being deprived of their element.
* ElementalEyeColors: Prominent members of the Fire Nation have amber eyes, important Water Tribe members have blue eyes, important Earth Kingdom people have a variety of colors but are usually green or brown, and the airbenders we see all have grey eyes.

** Firebending is fueled by emotion and rage, but its lightning-controlling form is fueled by a lack thereof (or, more accurately, by control over it). More to the point, firebending of any kind requires an unflinching will and a forceful, disciplined personality, which tends to lead to {{ambition|IsEvil}}. Later episodes reveal that one reason why the Fire Nation is so messed up is that its current bending style is corrupted and [[TheDarkSide focuses too much on anger]]. Zuko experiences this firsthand in "The Firebending Masters". After [[spoiler:his HeelFaceTurn]], he's less angry and can't fuel his fire the way he used to. He eventually learns that fire can also be fueled by passion, which he still has plenty of.

* ElementalPowers: Benders are people born with the ability to manipulate and control one of the four classical elements -- air, fire, earth and water. In addition, there are the Avatar, a reincarnating individual with the unique ability to control all four, and specialized applications of the four main elements such as lightning-bending, a subset of firebending.
* ElementNumberFive: [[spoiler:Energybending.]] Justified, as [[spoiler:the giant Lionturtle]] explains that people did it long before elemental bending and that it works off the same principles.

* EldritchAbomination: The individual avatars, even the dead ones living in the current one's head, are humans of diverse motivation who share the desire and ability to balance the spirit world against the physical world, nature against civilization, etc. The Avatar State, on the other hand, where they're all mashed together into a single entity, doesn't really... understand either nature or the mortal concept of 'balance'. Since it is also the most powerful entity on the planet hands-down, this means the most convenient way to deal with whatever threat it was summoned to deal with is to [[OmnicidalManiac just destroy everything in the vicinity starting with anything attacking it]] until its vessel runs out of power, and assume that whatever it was that was bothering the host was probably somewhere in the blast radius. Occasionally, even this [[BlueAndOrangeMorality gets weird]], since the host's vague impressions of what is 'threatening' or 'attacking' don't necessarily mean a lot to a creature that literally cannot be harmed by anything. All of this usually happens with the Avatar state keeping the host's face largely an emotionless mask, to drive the point home, though occasionally it appears that Aaang is actually in control until something proves otherwise with an even creepier abruptness.

** The comics deconstruct this trope somewhat. The Fire Nation colonials living in the Earth Kingdom are more than a little reluctant to leave the only home they ever knew, which leads to a near falling out between Aang and Zuko. Its ultimately decided that while the Fire Nation can't remain in control of these colonies (as it would still be a form of imperialism), its not fair to force the people out.

** Bumi wears his robes all the time, unless he's showing off how great an earthbender he is.

** Also justified for Bumi, since his basic political strategy relies on convincing people he's a demented old figurehead-until suddenly it's time to show them that he's actually a demented old earthbending master, and also replace "demented" with [[ObfuscatingStupidity "alarmingly savvy"]].

* EverybodyHelpsOutDenouement: The episode "The Painted Lady" ends with the crew joining a bunch of villagers clean a river that was polluted by some evil factory-workers that the gang defeated in the climax.
* ExactWords: Aunt Wu's predictions come true, but not necessarily in the way they imply: for instance a man has a safe journey...because the Gaang chase off the platypus bear that was attacking him, a man finds his true love while wearing red shoes... because he's worn those shoes every day since the prediction was made, and the volcano outside the village doesn't destroy it [[spoiler:because Aang stops it with his airbending skills]]

** Aang's general immunity to the weather and resistance to firebending even before he learns to bend it himself is justified by basic fluid dynamics: air in itself is a thermal insulator and it doesn't conduct heat very well when still. The mechanism by which it so readily transfers heat away from a body in the cold or into the body when a flame is nearby is convection, not conduction... and the airbenders have complete control of the bulk movement of air around their bodies. Aang's most basic power allows him to be surrounded by the equivalent of fire-retardant insulating foam at will.
* ExtraOreDinary: Toph invents metalbending by focusing her bending on the impurities in the metal, which allows her to manipulate it.
* EverythingMakesAMushroom: Aang creates a mushroom cloud while airbending in ''The Desert''.
* ExtremelyColdCase: The dead of Chin, as researched by Sokka and Katara: The people of Chin Village hate the Avatar for Avatar Kyoshi (supposedly) killing their leader Chin 370 years ago, and imprison Aang as the new incarnation of the Avatar. Sokka and Katara seek to clear Aang's (or really Kyoshi's) name and visit a museum on Kyoshi island were they find relatively conclusive evidence Kyoshi has to be innocent (a temple in which Kyoshi supposedly was in was only built later, a footprint attributed to her is much to small, and on the very day she killed Chin she also "founded" an island). [[spoiler:In Aangs trial, however, Kyoshi manifests and confesses that she indeed did kill Chin: he was an invading warlord, so to protect her home country, she split it off of the mainland (thus founding Kyoshi island), and Chin, who was refusing to back down from the cliff, eventually fell down, leaving the footprint.]] Hearing the explanation, the case is solved after 370 years, and Chin Village grudingly stops hating the Avatar.

** Zhao was the [[EvilCounterpart Evil(er) Counterpart]] of Zuko in Season 1. Both favored power over control with their firebending and obsessed with gaining honor and reputation.%% Zhao was so obsessed though that it actually led to his MoralEventHorizon.
** Jet, the WellIntentionedExtremist who bore a hatred toward the Fire Nation due to his village being attacked as child, served as this toward Sokka. While they both harbored prejudice, Jet's was so extreme that he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped off the slippery slope]]. Both are also [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] who can keep up with skilled benders.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Most major characters went through hairstyle changes over the course of the show, in stark contrast to many cartoons' habit of keeping hairstyles exactly the same to make it easier to animate. There were so many hairstyle changes, in fact, that it gave rise to the fan term "hairbending".

** For the first two thirds of Season 3, Aang actually ''had'' hair (having been too busy being unconscious to shave, and determining it made a good way to disguise his head tat while sneaking around in the Fire Nation afterward).

** Fire Lord Ozai in Books 1 and 2. In the 3rd, he's revealed to be...an actually pretty good looking middle-aged guy.

* FakeWizardry: We have benders, people who can manipulate one of the four classical elements (and the [[TheChosenOne Avatar]] who [[AllYourPowersCombined can control all of them]]) and uses them for [[KungFuMagic Combat]] or [[MundaneUtility everyday uses]]. However, not all people are benders, including Sokka, the BadassNormal of the Gaang. He has used some tricks to recreate similar effects, like bombs as fake firebending or using air pressure (provided by airbending, but the witnesses didn't knew that) to make rocks float on the air and pretend it's earthbending.

** Aang lost everyone he'd ever known due to being cryogenically frozen, including the only mentor he ever had. As if that weren't enough, because he is the reincarnation of the avatar, it's his responsibility to keep the balance between the nations. He doesn't actually angst as much as you might expect, though.
** Katara and Sokka both long for parental affection because a Fire Nation solider killed their mother and their father left to fight in the war when they were very young.

* FantasticRacism: The Fire Nation is utterly convinced that they're superior to all other peoples. But, it seems mainland citizens don't give second glances at others.

** The original fire-bending civilization, the Sun Warriors: [[{{Mayincatec}} Mesoamerica]] mixed with Southeast Asia.

** Ozai's receiving CruelMercy can be considered one after [[spoiler:losing his ability to firebend]] in the finale.

* FieldPowerEffect: The moon and sun to waterbenders and firebenders respectively. Also, Sozin's Comet.

** The current page image for the trope is [[CoolOldGuy Uncle Iroh]], a laidback, goofy MentorArchetype who happens to be the Fire Lord's brother. Early in the series he's mostly played as his nephew Zuko's comic relief, though rather than a case of ObfuscatingStupidity, he really believes that one of the best lessons his nephew could learn is how to lighten up. Iroh is deeply kind, very wise, and one of the most skilled firebenders in the world -- though [[WeakButSkilled not necessarily as powerful]] as his brother, as firebending in particular ''is'' generally fueled by strong emotion.
** Many of the more prominent firebenders appear outwardly calm, but this is often a MaskOfSanity, one which AntiVillain Zuko tries and often fails to maintain. [[EvilOverlord Ozai]], his daughter and [[TheDragon dragon]] Azula, and Admiral Zhao all derive significant power from their reserves of TranquilFury, but have [[HairTriggerTemper Hair-Trigger Tempers]] and eventually [[VillainousBreakdown crumble]] when their various plans start to fall apart. A large part of Zuko's CharacterDevelopment is about learning how to accept his anger and use it ''constructively'', rather than being controlled by it like his father and sister.

** Males in the Southern Water Tribe are taken by their fathers ice dodging at the age of 14 as a rite of passage into manhood, where they have to sail their boat around glaciers.
** The [[TheChosenOne avatar]] is only informed of their chosen one status at 16 so they may begin training. Aang is considered to have been too young to begin his at 12.

** This is the problem with [[ElementalPowers bending powers]]. They can only be mastered by the people of the ElementalNation corresponding to them, meaning that if you use for example [[MakingASplash waterbending]], you're sure to be recognized to be a member of the Water Tribe. This applies especially to [[TheHero Aang]], who ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title of the series suggests]]) is the [[TheLastOfHisKind last]] [[BlowYouAway airbender]], so if he uses his powers, everyone can figure out that he's [[MessianicArchetype the Avatar]].
** [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Jet]] tries at one point forcing Zuko to use his [[PlayingWithFire firebending]] so the people of Earth Kingdom would realise he's a citizen of Fire Nation hiding in their country. The reason why he knew Zuko to be a firebender in the first place is because his uncle used firebending to ''warm up his tea''.

** Relatively often, though most episodes have at least some small effect on the plot or introduce a future recurring character. And many of the filler episodes are beloved by the fanbase.

* FilthyFun: Toph likes being dirty all the time because she has trouble seeing when she is clean and is rebelling against her strict upbringing.

** The stronger a bender is, the more they can do with a little physical action. Toph in particular loves this.
** Bumi can earthbend with just his face.

* FingerSnapLighter: Just about every firebender can do this.

** Zuko is a firebender and the most stereotypically masculine of the Gaang's male members, being strict, serious-minded, scar-faced, quick to anger and lacking Aang's gentleness and Sokka's sense of humor.

** The [[SuperpowerLottery Avatars]] themselves often encounter this as well. [[PlayingWithFire Fire-native]] Avatars often find learning [[MakingASplash Waterbending]] to be the most difficult bending art to learn, and vice versa for Water-native avatars. Something similar happens between air/earth as well.

* FlippingHelpless: Aang tries to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this trope by flipping over the [[ElementalNation Fire Nation]]'s [[TankGoodness Tundra Tanks]] with his [[BlowYouAway airbending powers]]. However, this doesn't end up working like he hoped for: for the sole purpose of [[AvertedTrope averting]] this trope, the design of the Tundra Tank includes ''[[CrazyPrepared a rotating cabin]]''.

** Katara/Sokka vs Azula/Zuko. Siblings pairs on opposite sides of the war whose fathers are the leaders of their respective peoples, both lost their mothers when they were young, and consist of a powerful bending-prodigy, younger sister and overshadowed older brother. However, Katara and Sokka grew up in the poor, almost-extinct Water Tribe, Hakoda is loving and affectionate, and the two are unwaveringly close and supportive of each other despite their differences. In contrast, Azula and Zuko were raised as in luxury in the powerful Fire Nation, but were pitted against each other by their abusive father and struggle with an increasingly toxic, broken relationship.

* FreudianTrio: In the first season. Aang is the ego, Sokka is superego, and Katara is the id.

** In the first episodes, the driving plot is that Aang needs to go to the North Pole to learn waterbending, so he can eventually restore peace. But a few episodes later, we learn that in a few months, the bad guys' powers will be multiplied by 100 for enough time for them to destroy all remaining opposition single-handedly.
** Especially egregious in Season 2. Their original plans to return to Omashu so Aang can learn earthbending from Bumi are ruined when they discover that Omashu has been taken over since their last visit. At the same time, the Gaang starts getting chased by Zuko's much more competent sister, Azula, and her two friends who can throw knives and block bending. Then, Appa is stolen by sandbenders, leaving the gang temporarily stranded in the desert, and remains missing for a large number of episodes. Then when the gang finally reaches Ba Sing Se, they make enemies with the government, mainly Long Feng and the Dai Li, due to their conspiracy to repress any mention of the war, halting the Gaang's plan to get the Earth King's help with the invasion, and the Fire Nation captures the city by the end of the season, thanks in part to Zuko's betrayal of Iroh (which he immediately regrets afterward) and helping Azula.
** Speaking of season 2's finale; when Aang gave up his love for Katara in order to save her by activating the Avatar State, his most powerful trump card. And is shot down almost immediately by Azula, nearly rendering him [[DeaderThanDead worse than dead]]. Even though he is revived and his Avatar Spirit and emotional attachment to Katara remain intact, he is still badly injured and now cut off from the Avatar State completely.

** Lampshaded in a couple of episodes where he mentions that the new city is worse than the last place the gang encountered him.

* GeniusBruiser: Combustion Man could be a bit. He is plenty strong and knew that a metal cage wouldn't hold Toph (as she is a metalbender, something unheard of before, and not universally known of her).

** A hundred years before the start of the series, the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads in hopes of killing Aang, the Avatar, in the process. Aang was the only survivor, ironically enough, because he was [[HumanPopsicle trapped in an iceberg]] the whole time and the Fire Nation never found him. The series delves into how much Aang struggles with being the LastOfHisKind, such as when he visits the ruins of his former home [[spoiler: and finds his father figure's remains]] or when he tries to stay true to the values of his culture even though his friends don't fully understand them. The SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfKorra'' reveals that Aang showed ParentalFavoritism toward his son Tenzin for being the only one of his children to inherit airbending and thus being the only one he could pass his culture on to. This caused his other two children, Kya and Bumi, to feel neglected.
** After wiping out the Air Nomads, the Fire Nation launched a campaign to get rid of all the waterbenders in the Southern Water Tribe because the Avatar was expected to reincarnate as a waterbender. As a result, Katara is the only waterbender left in the entire South Pole. Throughout the first book, she struggles to learn waterbending on her own until she reaches the Northern Water Tribe and finds a teacher. In Book 3, she meets Hama, another waterbender from her tribe who had been captured many years ago, but managed to escape and start a new life in the Fire Nation. They bond over their shared culture and Katara is excited to learn the traditional southern style of waterbending from Hama. [[spoiler: That is, until she learns that Hama has been using [[PeoplePuppets bloodbending]] to kidnap and imprison random Fire Nation citizens as revenge for what happened to her]].

* GiantFootprintReveal: An episode ends with Momo squatting in a depression which turns out to be one of Appa's footprints on zoom out. It's only the audience getting an aha moment as Momo knew this was his friend's imprint.

* TheGift: Azula, Katara, Aang, and Toph are all prodigies of their art. Aang mastered airbending by the age of ten. Azula's ability with firebending allows her to manipulate lightning while being mentally-unhinged, when even the most gifted firebenders struggle to do it normally. Katara struggled without a teacher but eventually mastered waterbending in a matter of weeks when she found herself a proper teacher. And then there's Toph, who learned earthbending entirely through spending time with badger-moles and proved to be so good at it that she developed her own discipline of earthbending at the end of Book II.

* GivingUpOnLogic: Sokka never fully does this, but he starts off as almost a FlatEarthAtheist who says that bending is magic and a flying bison could never exist to casually accepting all the various genuinely supernatural experiences the Gaang goes through.

* AGodAmI: While Sozin was more or less an EvilOverlord and nobody saw enough of Azulon to know what went on with him, Ozai fits this during the finale, just by crowning himself Phoenix King before he's even won. The [[LargeHam hammiest]] example of this, however, was Zhao at the North Pole:

* GoneHorriblyRight: In the Season 2 opener, General Fong convinces Aang to attempt to use the Avatar State to take on the Fire Lord without having learned all the elements. After many failed attempts of bringing on this state however, Fong grows impatient and tricks Aang into the Avatar State by pretending to harm Katara. He gets his wish alright, and a good chunk of his fortress is destroyed in the process.
* GoodAngelBadAngel: Zuko's uncle and sister in the Season 2 finale; in the episode before, Zuko goes into an AngstComa and dreams about a Red dragon that speaks with Iroh's voice and a blue dragon with Azula's. This is a neat foreshadowing of [[spoiler:Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin being his implied historical and psychological GoodAngelBadAngel]] in ''The Avatar and the Fire Lord''. Roku (Ursa's grandfather) owned a red dragon and Sozin (Ozai's grandfather) owned a blue-green one.

** Zuko's eyes are amber in color, and are mostly narrow and menacing for the first season, in which he is the primary antagonist. As we see more from his perspective over the course of Book 2, his eyes get wider ([[RuleOfSymbolism as his eyes are opened to the damage the Fire Nation has caused]]) until by the time Book 3 comes around, they are wider than anyone who isn't part of the Gaang.

** In Zuko's backstory in "The Storm", when Zuko's father Ozai [[AbusiveParents scars his face as punishment for speaking out of line]], the camera cuts to Iroh looking away in horror.

* TheGreatestStyle: The various bending types use moves from martial arts. Earthbending is based on the real-world Hung Ga, but Toph's Earthbending is miles above anyone else's, was self-taught (or rather taught by being around giant badgermoles) , allows her to use metalbending (no one else in the series can), and is based on one called Southern Mantis style.

** Iroh telling Zuko's crew that he was ForcedToWatch Ozai burn off part of Zuko's face, to "teach him a lesson" about respect during an Agni Kai. He couldn't look, not helped by the fact that Azula and Zhao were thrilled about the sadism display. The crew is shocked that their Firelord would do such a thing.

* HappyEnding: Basically the entire finale: [[spoiler:Aang is able to depower Ozai, Zuko becomes the new Firelord, everyone survives, and Aang and Katara end up together. Iroh even gets his teahouse back.]]

** Subverted. It looks as though Aang learns waterbending faster than Katara (which would at least be justified by being the Avatar), but when Katara and Aang get an actual instructor instead of relying on self-teaching and the scroll, Katara masters it even faster than Aang, who spends a lot of time slacking off. Furthermore, Aang has trouble with earthbending since that [[ElementalRockPaperScissors is the counter to air]].

** Also a big source of angst for Zuko, who spends more time training than perhaps any other character, but is still overshadowed by his naturally gifted sister. This turns out to be because he doesn't naturally come by the kind of rage that Azula uses to power her firebending, and has to learn to use another source. [[spoiler:Once he discovers the true source of firebending, he is more than a match for her in every subsequent confrontation.]]

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The series provides two examples of this in Jet and Hama, two individuals whose hatred of the Fire Nation blinded them to the point where they could no longer distinguish between friend and foe. Hama was even worse than Jet, because he at least tried to justify it as [[WellIntentionedExtremist doing the right thing]] by making sacrifices, and he did redeem himself [[RedemptionEqualsDeath in the end]]. Meanwhile, Hama was treated so badly that she targeted anyone within reach, mostly civilians. Both of them served as a warning to Sokka and Katara, respectively, about what they could become if they continued to hold on to their own prejudice and anger, with Katara coming especially close to crossing this line herself, most notably in "The Southern Raiders" when she actually [[spoiler:uses ''[[DangerousForbiddenTechnique bloodbending]]'' on the man she believes killed her mother.]]

* HeroicAmbidexterity: Zuko is trained to dual wield twin scimitars, and uses this skill to fight against benders when he wants to hide his identity and his knowledge of fire bending. When explaining what he was taught he says that when using two swords you have to treat them like "they're part of the same body" and move them in sync.

* HighFantasy: An epic that involves the fate of the world, a young boy and his RagtagBunchOfMisfits who are WalkingTheEarth, politics that change the course of the world, gods (called spirits but act as deities) that interact with the protagonists and, as a refreshing twist, takes place in a mythical world inspired by Eastern culture rather than Western. It would go in Wuxia save for the fact that it holds very little in common with the genre.
* HighVoltageDeath: In the second season finale,[[spoiler:it's subverted. Azula uses lightning bending and strikes Aang in the back as he is entering into the Avatar state, threatening to end the avatar cycle for good. It at least looks like he died until Katara revives him with water from the Spirit Oasis, subverting a permanent version of this.]]

** Most of the issues Aang faces are him accepting his role as the Avatar.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Avatar State borders on this, especially during the fight with Ozai in the finale. Since the state is basically allowing all previous avatars to act through you instead of yourself, it's much more brutal and ruthless than Aang is normally.

* HypocriticalHumor: A number of times. For example, when Team Avatar are frustrated in their initial attempts to warn the Earth King about the war, they switch to searching for Appa and their government-appointed handler Joo Dee seems finally supportive but won't let them go out without her. She promises not to get in the way and ''immediately'' gets in Toph's way when she tries to leave the house. The squeaky noises used with her footsteps really sell it.

** In the beginning of Book 3, Aang makes a picture of Fire Lord Ozai at school. In "Daydreams and Nightmares" it's put on a tree so Aang can train.

** In "Daydreams and Nightmares", Aang has a reoccurring NotWearingPantsDream about fighting the Fire Lord only to discover he's not wearing pants, until he eventually gets over it, saying: "No, Fire Lord, it is you who is not wearing pants!" "My royal parts are showing!" In the finale, Aang and Ozai are both shirtless for most of the fight, so they are both ''only and specifically'' wearing pants.

** In the first episode, Aang will do pretty much ''anything'' to go ''[[WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans penguin]]'' sledding. [[note]] His first words to Katara are "Will you go penguin sledding with me?" Also, after being informed of the war going on, he ignores it, shouting "PENGUIN!" instead. [[/note]] Doubles as a ThrowItIn also.

* ForgotToGagHim: After Jet is revealed to be a WellIntentionedExtremist, Katara freezes him to a tree to prevent him from blowing up an Earth Kingdom town. However, she doesn't gag him. Then Jet whistles the signal to set off the explosion, and Longshot shoots.

* FaintInShock: Sokka faints upon seeing the pregnant woman give birth en route to Ba Sing Se.

%%* TheDollEpisode: "The Puppetmaster"

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

*** According to the characters written in certain episodes, Toph is an alternate spelling/pronunciation for either of the Chinese names Tuòfú or Tuofu. No word on whether that was the intention from the beginning or if they were just retroactively trying to find characters that fit. Wiki/TheOtherWiki says that Toph's name actually means 'supported Lotus' in Mandarin.

* ClingyAquaticLife: In "Return to Omashu", the purple pentapus was seen in a bucket filled with water and inside a sewer when the gang used it to enter Omashu. They are known to be clingy unless they're stroked on the head, and leave behind spots which the Gaang used to fake a disease, "pentapox".

* ClotheslineStealing: When the Gaang settles in the Fire Nation, they have to steal Fire Nation clothes from the clothesline to blend in.

** The Gaang's experience in Ba Sing Se. They were allowed to indulge in all the luxury they wanted, as long as they didn't try to leave, or break the rules, or evade the constant surveillance, or search for Appa, or tell anyone about Long Feng's GovernmentConspiracy, or mention the war with the Fire Nation, or...

** In "The Cave of Two Lovers", the Gaang decline entering the cave for Appa's sake. Cut, and the Fire Nation are bombarding them in the sky. They go to the tunnel instead.

** Creator/MarkHamill voices an AxCrazy EvilOverlord who, at the climax of his story, [[Anime/CastleInTheSky tries to burn the entire world underneath him from a flying fortress]]. He also voiced Maximus, a usurping second-born son in ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'', making Ozai an allusion to a few of his past roles.

** The Boiling Rock is one of the most over-the-top examples that isn't for humor: It's a maximum security prison, on a tiny island, in a lake ''heated to boiling'' by hydrothermal vents, [[UpToEleven in the caldera of a remote volcanic island]], so that the only way in or out is an aerial tram to the docks. [[spoiler:Sokka and Zuko break out Suki, Hakoda, and a random inmate named Chit Sang who overheard their escape plans ("Hey, I'm new").]]

* TheFightingNarcissist: Ozai [[UpToEleven to the nth degree]].