History AvatarTheLastAirbender / TropesAToH

** In "Nightmares and Daydreams" Aang has dreams about facing off against the Fire Lord, dressed as Goku from ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and the title character from ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}.

* 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.

* DangerousSixteenthBirthday:

* 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.

* CliffHanger: Zuko confronts his father and demands to know where [[spoiler:his mother]] is, but if he gets an answer, it's never shown to the viewers... [[SequelHook hmm]]...

** The Avatar comics which appeared in various Nickelodeon publications throughout the run of the series also fill in some important details, particularly the ones set between Seasons 2 and 3, which reveal [[spoiler:what happened to Ba Sing Se after Azula conquered it, and how Zuko and Mai got together]].

** Occasionally [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] throughout the series as we see some of the Fire Nation are just {{Punch Clock Villain}}s and behave relatively normal when away from combat, and then ''fully'' subverted as the third season goes on and we meet the citizens of the Fire Nation, and even made fun of in one of the comics, where Sokka insists they spy on a Fire Nation village, and we see the people doing completely normal, innocent activities; Aang even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the subversion at the end of "The Avatar and the Fire Lord": "Everyone is capable of great good and great evil." [[spoiler:And then there's [[GoodPowersBadPeople Hama]], the southern Waterbender who subverts AlwaysLawfulGood.]]

* AndThenWhat: Uncle Iroh's confrontation with Zuko over trying to kidnap Appa in Season 2, as well as Sokka's escape plans from the Boiling Rock in Season 3.

** An episode in Season 3 focuses on Sokka's consternation over getting saddled with this. By the episode's end, has [[TookALevelInBadass taken a level in Badass]] and got a [[ThunderboltIron fancy sword]].

* [[invoked]] AngstWhatAngst: Aang tries to invoke this in "The Serpent's Pass", after completely freaking out in the previous episode over losing Appa. Don't worry, he snaps out of it.

* AngstComa: In Season 2, Zuko undergoes a severe fever and enters a coma in which he has vivid dreams in which his uncle and sister appear as dragons and argue over his life choices. Iroh says that this is "not a natural illness" and the whole thing is apparently caused solely by Zuko's [[spoiler:premature HeelFaceTurn]].

** The first season is bookended by Iroh telling Zuko "A man needs his rest."

** Mai, Ty Lee and Azula want to know, "Who are you mad at?"

** In the final episodes of the first season, Sokka falls for Princess Yue, who is very unhappy to be headed for an arranged marriage to [[{{Jerkass}} Hahn]]. [[spoiler:She gets out of it by [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence becoming the moon spirit]]]] and by Hahn being [[DroppedABridgeOnHim unceremoniously thrown overboard by Zhao]] and, while his fate is unknown, he is never seen or mentioned again.
** Kanna, the future grandmother of Sokka and Katara, was once arranged to be married to Waterbending Master Pakku, who saw her as the "love of his life". She ran away from the Northern to the Southern Tribe to avoid him and the Northern Tribe's traditions, and Pakku grew incredibly bitter and misogynistic as a result. It appears to have been the traditions were the problem rather than Pakku's person, however, because months after Pakku - having had a change of heart after meeting Katara and realizing Kanna's actual reasons to leave - traveled to the Southern Tribe, he and Kanna [[NewOldFlame properly got married]], this time in mutual love.
** [[AllThereInTheManual According to the old official site]], Princess Ursa was arranged to be married to Prince Ozai, who was her perfect match. Which might hint that Zuko and Mai may have been arranged for each other early on as well, although they're so genuinely in love with each other (even blushing around each other as children) that it doesn't really matter anyway.
** The comics {{Retconned}} this. Ursa was already in love with a man from her village, before Fire Lord Sozin forced her to marry Ozai, because she was a descendant of Avatar Roku. Ozai forbade her from having any contact with him, or anyone else from her village ever again. And that's just the beginning of what she went through.
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Prince Zuko, especially in the first season; Zhao; Xin Fu, the tournament runner tracking Toph with Master Yu; and Toph herself.

* ArrowCam: In episode 13 when the Blue Spirit is struck down by one of the Yu Yan archers.

** In the Season 2 episode "Avatar Day", the punishment wheel has punishments ranging from torture machine, boiled in oil, eaten by sharks, and several other fates equally painful and fatal, to... community service.

** A similar issue appears in "The Siege of the North." Despite being located at the north pole, the sun rises and sets as it would below the arctic line. As mentioned in "The Boy in the Iceberg" by Sokka, midnight sun does in fact exist in the world of the Avatar. As such, for day and night to cycle during a normal twenty four hour period in the north pole is not plausible around the solstices. That said, it was not said how long after the winter solstice it was until Aang and his friends reached the North Pole.

** 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.
** Season 2: Princess Azula for the entire season, [[spoiler:with Long Feng]] for a StoryArc starting late in the season and extending towards the end. [[spoiler:Azula overshadows and takes over from Long Feng without even trying.]]
** Season 3: Ozai, though Azula is still more prominent as TheDragon.
* BigBrotherInstinct: In "The Deserter" Sokka tackles Aang to the ground and yells at him for burning Katara.

[[folder:0-9]]

* TheBlank: The victims of Koh the Face Stealer.

* TheFaceless:
** Fire Lord Ozai in Books 1 and 2. In the 3rd, he's revealed to be...an actually pretty good-looking middle-aged guy.
** And Toph in Aang's vision.
** And Koh's victims, in a [[FaceStealer very literal sense]].

%%* 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.

** Also, Azula is seen in the Storm flashback of how Zuko got his scar. May also be a minor EstablishingCharacterMoment, given that she is smiling rather sadistically as she watches how it happens.

** A vision of Toph in "The Swamp".

** "The Southern Raiders" takes {{Forgiveness}}, an Aesop commonly found in children's shows and completely [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] it. Katara does ''not'' forgive the man who killed her mother, and makes it clear that she will never forgive him, especially since he doesn't regret it. Instead, she ealizes that letting revenge, even ''incredibly justified'' revenge, dominate her life will destroy her. In the process, she ''does'' finally forgive Zuko for betraying the Gaang at the end of the second season, recognizing that he's trying to atone. It was an intelligent way of handling the Aesop that counts as a {{Reconstruction}}.

** "The Southern Raiders" takes {{Forgiveness}}, an Aesop commonly found in children's shows and completely [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] it. Katara does ''not'' forgive the man who killed her mother, and makes it clear that she will never forgive him, especially since he doesn't regret it. Instead, she realizes that letting revenge, even ''[[KickTheSonOfABitch incredibly justified]]'' revenge, dominate her life will destroy her. In the process, she ''does'' finally forgive Zuko for betraying the Gaang at the end of the second season, recognizing that he's trying to atone. It was an intelligent way of handling the Aesop that counts as a {{Reconstruction}}.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: A JustifiedTrope for Toph, since she "sees" through her feet.
** Drawn to the forefront when they steal Fire Nation clothes; she punches her feet through the shoes to remove the soles.
%%*** 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 - which, you may remember, Toph doesn't wear.

** Not surprising, considering this show's setting and mythology is practically built entirely on the FourElementEnsemble trope. Specifically, the first protagonists introduced in the show hail from the peaceful and simple Water Tribe, while the main antagonists are from the despotic and warlike Fire Nation.

** "Who are '''you''', and what do '''you''' want?" Iroh to Zuko.

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

** Admiral Zhao. He is cruel and sneaky and brutally persecutes the Avatar. On his way, he will attack and burn down any village that has helped the Avatar and his friends. In the Northern Water Tribe, he wants to kill the Moon and Ocean Spirits to plunge the world into chaos. But to his bad luck, the Ocean Spirit decides to punish him. But technically, he is not killed but banished to the spirit world.

* ContraltoOfDanger:
** June, a bounty hunter Zuko hires to find and capture Aang, has a deeper voice than the other female characters to portray her as dangerous.
** Avatar Kyoshi also has a deeper voice. Both she and June are voiced by Creator/JenniferHale.