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Avatar The Last Airbender
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alt title(s): Avatar; Avatar The Legend Of Aang 
Katara: Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?
Aang: Because... I never wanted to be.
Avatar: The Last Airbender or Avatar: The Legend Of Aang and Avatar: The Master of the Elements.
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's genius combination of Eastern art and Western writing.
Avatar takes place in a world divided into four nations: the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and the Air Nomads. Each have created a fighting style to control or "bend" the element that is their namesake. Only the Avatar, one person born every generation, is capable of mastering all the elements and serving as peacekeeper and protector.
This is the story of a 112-year-old Avatar, the Airbender Aang, and his quest to master the four bending arts so that he can save the world from Fire Lord Ozai and end the century-long war that he spent trapped in an iceberg. Oh, and just to make things more interesting, he only has until the end of summer to do it!
Luckily, he has found himself in good company with the Waterbender Katara and her brother Sokka. As they embark on this journey, they gain more allies. Take a look at the character sheet to get to know more about the characters.
The show is known for its references to Eastern religion and mythology, aggressive fantastic battles and well written characters, which is likely why the series nabs strong Ratings across many different demographics (comedy for the kids, deeper stuff for the adults; fight scenes for the guys and Fanservice for the ladies.)
The Season 1 finale is considered an exceptional work of art for its incredibly epic story and execution. As for Season 2, a list of all the tropes and traditions the writers broke or subverted in the finale could be a page all on its own. And the third, and final, season finale? Let's just say the HSQ was through the roof.
The first season is currently being made into a live-action film The Last Airbender, which will be the second Shyamalan film to be inspired by a Nickelodeon show. While the original creators are still involved with the storyline, it seems that almost every announcement is either warmly received or violently hated. This has already led to some Fan Disillusionment. The teaser trailer is out and can be viewed here It's up to you whether it looks too Darker And Edgier or just right. The consensus is pretty split.
In another take-off of LittleKuriboh's parody style, Avatar The Abridged Series by GanXingba has become fairly popular.
This show provides examples of:
- The Abridged Series: by GanXingba. The Ember Island Players is a Show Within A Show example in the best way possible.
- Abusive Parents: Ozai, full stop.
- Action Girl: Katara and Suki
- Adrenaline Makeover: Katara
- Affectionate Parody: The Boulder, a paper-thin parody of pro wrestlers Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Hulk Hogan, and Randy Savage. And he's voiced by another wrestler (and friend of The Rock) Mick Foley, who you can tell was having a grand olde time providing the voice.
- "The Ember Island Players," has the gang attend a play based on their adventures, with Character Exaggeration of the traits of all characters.
- A God Am I: While Sozin was more or less an Evil Overlord 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 Alcatraz: The Boiling Rock
- All There In The Manual: The main purpose of the Nickelodeon site is to provide supplementary information while not using up valuable air time.
- Always Save The Girl: Aang decides saving Katara is more important then finishing opening the chakras for the Avatar state
- Which was something that Iroh fully agreed with.
- Amazon Brigade: The Kyoshi Warriors
- A Nazi By Any Other Name: The Fire Nation
- And Then What?: Uncle Iroh's confrontation with Zuko over trying to kidnap Appa in season 2.
- Angels Pose: Ozai's Angels during the play in Ember Island Players, playing on their nickname.
- Ancient Keeper: Wan Shi Tong.
- Ancient Tradition: The Order of the White Lotus
- Animation Bump: The Grand Finale has a few shots of a much higher quality, though the series itself is already unusually high quality.
- Animesque: Asian setting, multi-national cast, art-style similar to Cowboy Bebop, face faults,...wait, this is an AMERICAN cartoon!? I thought this is from Singapore!
- Anti Villain: Zuko
- The Aragorn: Uncle Iroh, when he leads the forces of the Order of the White Lotus to retake Ba Sing Se.
- Arc Words: "I must regain my honor." There are story sequences built around this phrase for Zuko, Aang, and Sokka, in that order.
- Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Prince Zuko, especially in the first season; Zhao; Xin Fu, the tournament runner tracking Toph with Master Yu; and to a certain extent Toph herself.
- Sokka, minus the Kung Fu part.
- Arranged Marriage: Hahn and Yue, and according to Word Of God, Ozai and Ursa.
- Also chronologically first, Kana (Gran-Gran) and Pakku
- Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence: Princess Yue becomes the Moon Spirit.
- Ass Pull: It's an endless argument on whether or not Energybending. qualifies.
- Awesome Moment Of Crowning: The end of the series gives one to Zuko
- Subverted to Hell and back for Azula.
- Badass Family: The Firelord's family, and Hakoda's family.
- Badass Normal: Sokka, Hakoda, Suki, and Azula's minions, among others.
- Bare Your Midriff: Quite a few ladies in the show.
- Beach Episode: Fittingly named "The Beach", although in a variant, the Beach Episode is given for the villains.
- Berserk Button: Aang is very attached to Appa, and putting Katara in danger is a very good way to have him go Avatar on your ass.
- Beta Couple: Sokka & Suki, Zuko & Mai
- Big Bad: Fire Lord Ozai
- The first and second seasons had Zuko, Zhao and Azula as their main antagonists.
- Big Brother Is Watching: "There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
- Big Damn Heroes: This is Appa's main roll, seriously.
- Big No: Zuko pulls off one in the finale, when Azula attempts to strike Katara with lightning.
- Bilingual Bonus: The background text contains a number of Easter Eggs for viewers who know Chinese.
- Bizarrchitecture: The Western Air Temples
- Blade Brake - twice
- The Blank: The victims of Koh the Face Stealer
- Brain Bleach: Zuko, after seeing uncle Iroh hit on a large woman in "The Drill": "I'm gonna forget I saw that." Complete with Face Palm!
- Very much the same reaction from Zuko when Uncle Iroh stands up from the hotspring in his birthday suit.
- Break The Haughty: Zuko, Azula
- Breather Episode:
- "Nightmares and Daydreams", which comes between Katara using Bloodbending, and "The Invasion."
- "The Ember Island Players", the well-lit last episode before the four-episode finale arc.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Bumi, and how!
- Cain And Abel: Ozai and Iroh; Zuko and Azula
- The Caligula: Azula as Fire Lord
- Arguably, Ozai also turns into this. At least after declaring himself the Phoenix King.
- You could call Sozin and everyone after him, at least before Zuko this. None of them appear to be particularly sane.
- Call A Smeerp A Rabbit: "Penguins".
- Calling The Old Man Out: Katara to Hakoda, and more significantly, Zuko to Ozai.
- Cannot Tell A Joke: Zuko.
- The Caretaker: Iroh
- Catapult Nightmare: Both Aang and Zuko
- Cat Smile: Jin, who owns a lot of her popularity thanks to this.
- Character Witness: The old Fire Nation man in the episode "Jet"
- Chase Scene: "The Waterbending Scroll"
- Chekhovs Gun: Schematics for a drilling machine, a prototype war balloon, Katara's amulet of water from the North Pole oasis, Iroh's sandal, the scroll with the Lion Turtles at the Library...
- The Chick: Katara qualifies.
- The Chosen One: Aang
- City Of Canals: The northern water tribe's city
- Clear My Name: "Avatar Day"
- Cliff Hanger: Zuko confronts his father and demands to know where his mother is, but the answer is never displayed on screen for the viewer...hmm...
- Companion Cube: Sokka's Boomerang and later, Space Sword. Complete with "death". This troper would like to think that someone found 'em years later and returned them to Sokka.
- Complete Monster: Fire Lord Ozai qualifies big time.
- Convection Schmonvection: Inconsistently played straight and averted.
- Creepy Child: Flashback-Azula
- Cross Dressing Voices: Not used in the show itself (12 year old Aang is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen), but Lampshaded in the play in The Ember Island Players, where Aang is played by a (visibly adult) woman.
- Daddys Little Villain: Azula
- Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: The Avatars are supposed to be told about their identity on their 16th. Aang didn't get that luxury.
- 16 is also the age in which Northern Water Tribe girls become eligible for marriage, much to poor Yue's dismay. It is unclear whether the same custom carries on to Katara's tribe.
- Daydream Surprise: "Nightmares and Daydreams"
- Day In The Life: "Tales of Ba Sing Se"
- A Day In The Limelight: "Zuko Alone," "Appa's Lost Days," "Sokka's Master"
- Defanged Horrors: Koh
- Development Gag
- Disability Superpower: Toph's enhanced senses and Earthbending prowess as a result of her blindness.
- Often lampshaded and parodied with lines such as 'Your feet need their eyes checked' and 'I'll tell your feet what's going on'.
- Doing It For The Art: The creators didn't have to go through the insane lengths that they did to ensure the series' quality, especially all of those little details many viewers wouldn't even notice unless they were specifically looking for them. But they did, which is why the series is so great.
- Do I Really Sound Like That Comes with the territory in "The Ember Island Players". Katara is particularly defensive.
- Doomed Hometown: The Southern Air Temple for Aang. The Northern, Western, and Eastern ones did not fare too well either.
- Double Consciousness: Being both the son of the Fire Lord and the destined ally of the Avatar has got to be tough.
- Downer Ending: Several episodes of season two, most significantly with the season finale.
- Draco In Leather Pants: Zuko, Zhao, Azula and Ozai.
- The Dragon: Princess Azula; she was even portrayed as a blue dragon within a hallucination her brother was experiencing.
- Dramatic Thunder: Second type in "The Storm" and "The Southern Raiders"
- Dual Wielding: Both Zuko and Jet prefer dual wielding style (and of course, they end up in a dual-wielding duel in one episode)
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Egopolis: Omashu, renamed as New Ozai, to be fair it was his daughter's idea
- Elaborate Underground Base: One situated beneath Lake Laogai, plus a war bunker under the Fire Nation capital.
- Elemental Baggage: Primarily the Firebenders because they can create their own fire, the other bending styles require the appropriate amount of their element to use.
- Elemental Powers
- Eleventh Hour Superpower: Energy Bending. Superfluous but useful.
- Elite Mooks: The Dai Li and Yu Yan archers.
- Enemy Mine: "The Blue Spirit", although it's not obvious that the Blue Spirit is an enemy
- Ermine Cape Effect: Bumi wears his robes all the time, unless he's showing off how great an Earthbender he is.
- Estrogen Brigade Bait: Zuko. Just...Zuko.
- Arguably also Sokka, Jet and Haru, to a lesser degree.
- Et Tu Brute: Azula starts to lose it after Mai and Ty Lee do their Heel Face Turn.
- Everythings Worse With Bears: Averted with Bosco, who is pretty nice. Platypus-bears on the other hand are not so nice.
- Evil Foreigner: Parodied expertly as part of a pro-wrestling send-up.
- Evil Is Sexy: Azula.
- The Faceless: Fire Lord Ozai in books 1 and 2
- Fanart: Gotten to the point where some of the directors have set up their own active DeviantArt accounts. The staff has managed to compose an impressive fan art wall◊. One particular fanartist came to be hired as a storyboarder for the show.
- Face Palm: "Hey, Sokka, how'd you get that mark on your forehead?"
- False Start: The Earth King See Moment Killer.
- Fan Community Nicknames: Due primarily to one certain "megafan"'s infamous, longrunning satire comic of the Avatar fandom, fans have come to almost unanimously accept the term, "Avatards".
- Fandom Rivalry: "A couple more years, and you might be ready to fight a sea sponge." (For the record, we were. "Yes! We have defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!")
- Fan Nicknames
- Fan Service: in full force by Season 3
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture - Although each nation has other elements mixed in, the main stylings are derived from:
- Air Nomads: Tibet, some elements of the Shaolin Temples of China
- Water Tribes: Inuits, with a little Pacific North West Indian.(Northern Tribe)
- Earth Kingdom: Qing (Manchu-dominated) Dynasty China with a little bit of Korea (Song's family from The Cave of Two Lovers) and Japan (Kyoshi Islands) in the mix
- Fire Nation: Tang Dynasty China/Taisho (Imperial) Japan/Mongolia
- An offshoot of the Fire Nation, the Sun Warriors, borrow from Native American cultures, specifically Aztecs and Mayans.
- Fantasy World Map: The official Avatar site at nick.com has a nice world map documenting the Gang's travels during the series.
- Fetish Fuel: Good lord! The fires that get started with that much fuel!
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Azula
- Find The Cure: "The Blue Spirit"
- Finger Poke Of Doom: The stronger a bender is, the more they can do with a little physical action. Toph is particular loves this.
- First Girl Wins: Three times over.
- Fish Out Of Temporal Water: Aang's entire culture is extinct, he's unaware of the war that's been going on for the past century, and his attempts to blend in in the Fire Nation are a mix of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe and Totally Radical.
- Five Man Band: See the Character Sheet for more info on them
- Forgot I Could Fly: (Sokka when he's high on cactus juice)
- Forgotten Phlebotinum: In the episode "The Swamp", Aang was able to track Appa's location via their spiritual link. That sure would have come in handy when the Sandbenders kidnapped Appa, eh?
- Actually, Aang managed to find Appa in that episode thanks to the tree in the swamp being one tree, so it can be argued that this cannot be replicated in the desert.
- Freudian Excuse: Defintely Zuko and it seems Azula as well
- Freudian Slip: Zuko asking Iroh for help in defeating the Fatherlord
- Fruit Cart: The Cabbage Merchant, who manages to be the Fruit Cart regardless of where the main gang go.
- Full Contact Magic: Bending is something between this and Supernatural Martial Arts.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Sokka does this to an Earthbender commander in "The Drill." Spoken word for word.
- Getting Crap Past The Radar
Sokka: Looks like someone had a good bathroom break.
Aang: Yeah, when I was in there, I-
Sokka: I don't even wanna know.
- The Gift: Azula and Toph
- Gilligan Cut
- Girl Of The Week: Jin and Song for Zuko. On Ji for Aang.
- Subverted with Mang, to whom he doesn't give the time of day.
- Glowing Eyes Of Doom: Aang whenever he is in the Avatar State.
- Gondor Calls For Aid: "The Invasion"
- Gory Discretion Shot: Zuko's backstory in "The Storm"
- Good Angel Bad Angel: Zuko's uncle and sister in the Season 2 finale; foreshadowed an episode earlier in a dream.
- Good Eyes Evil Eyes: Zuko's scar shows that the writers and character artists are well aware of this trope
- Good Scars Evil Scars: Zuko's facial burn actually covers 2 variations of this trope. When he is evil, it makes him look that much more menacing, but in the episodes where he is good(ish), it makes him look more noble — it is actually taken as a cue by Song and Jet that he is a fighter against the Fire Nation.
- Government Conspiracy: "There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
- Great Escape: "The Boiling Rock"
- Happy Ending: Basically the entire finale.
- Heart Symbol: In "The Boiling Rock". Sokka exhibits it when he realizes Suki is a prisoner there, so his mission with Zuko is not in vain, and he gets his Love Interest back.
- Heel Face Turn: If you watch the first season you will not be too surprised by the event. But it is played with and at least initially subverted in several instances because Familiarity Breeds Contemplation.
- Hes Just Hiding: Jet and Zhao
- Most fans still believe this of a number of Air Nomads.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: So Jolee Bindo is an Earthbender, huh?
- And Carth Onasi is a scholar, too.
- And one of the Earth Kingdom Generals has the same voice as Jin from Lost.
- Ozai is a slightly more sane and rational version of The Joker played by Mark Hamill.
- Sokka's Master is the T-1000!
- Hidden Elf Village: Ba Sing Se
- Hoist By His Own Petard: Zhao
- Hook Hand: Jet in "The Ember Island Players".
- HSQ: The entirety of the last two episodes.
- Human Popsicle: Aang, in the iceberg.
- Humiliation Conga: Ozai
- I Am Legion: Avatars speak with all the voices of their previous incarnations when in the Avatar state. Gets rather creepy with a pissed-off Aang demanding to know where his Bison is with a voice usually reserved for Demons.
- I Am Spartacus: "The Headband"
- Ice Cream Koan: Zuko ends up doing one of these when he asks himself, "What would Uncle do?"
Zuko: "Zuko, you must look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. Only then will your true self reveal itself."
- Also from Hue:
"Pants are an illusion, and so is death."
- Zuko does it again in "The Boiling Rock".
Zuko: "Clouds have a light side and a dark side, and a silver lining in the middle. So it's kind of like a silver sandwich. So when life gets you down, just take a bite out of the silver sandwich!"
- Iconic Item: Sokka's Boomerang, Katara's "hair loopies"
- I Just Want To Be Normal: Aang... at least comparatively.
- I Just Want To Be Special: Sokka sometimes, especially in "Sokka's Master".
- I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight: Aang to Jet in "Lake Laogai"
- Important Haircut:
- The usually shaven-headed Aang grows some hair between Seasons 2 and 3, and later gives himself an Important Haircut when he's about to face off with the Big Bad.
- Also Zuko and Iroh cut off their topknots when they are marked as traitors.
- Important Hair Growing Out, as Zuko's do changed from an exotic, samurai-inspired shaved-with-a-topknot look in season one to a standard Emo Teen mop by the end of Season 2 while his character becomes less and less the villain and more and more three-dimensional (and angsty).
- Happens again in the Season 3 Finale, only it isn't a turn for the better for the character, who's suffering from With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
- Incredibly Lame Pun - King of Omashu, lots of them
Katara: Let us leave!
King: [Picking up bit of his salad] "Lettuce leaf ... ?"
- Indy Ploy: Prince Zuko's efforts to capture the Avatar.
- Instant Armor: Frequently used by Earthbenders, and once by a Metalbending Toph.
- Instant Expert: Katara masters waterbending in a few weeks, an act that normally takes a lifetime. Aang pulls this with water and earth (which he becomes an expert in mere episodes after he's shown unable to earthbend at all)and to a lesser extent air, which he manages to master by the age of twelve, before he gets frozen, with the caveat that he's learned it all before in past lives. Sokka becomes pretty good with a sword in a single episode. For bonus points, it's implied that this episode was actually only two days. One in which he learned how to use a sword well enough to give a decent fight to a grandmaster, and one in which he forged his own sword out of a meteor. So he became an instant expert in swordsmanship and blacksmithing.
- Internet Backdraft: Cases of Ship To Ship Combat being a large offender, but mention this as an Anime and you'll set a forum ablaze for days.
- In The Blood: Zuko, revealed by Iroh in Season 3, has inherited his great-grandfather Sozin's "evil" and his great-grandfather Roku's "good": "Evil and good are always at war inside you, Zuko. It is your nature, your legacy."
- I Surrender Suckers: Azula
- It Got Worse: The second half of the second season.
- I Was Quite A Looker: Lo and Li. Zuko is...less than thrilled when they tell him this.
- Kangaroo Court: "Avatar Day"
- Karma Houdini: Fire Lord Sozin
- Karmic Death: Admiral Zhao, to avoid an Embarrassing Rescue. Given a rather contemplative ethical Lampshade Hanging in Kyoshi's flashback in the finale.
- Killed Off For Real: Princess Yue, Admiral Zhao, Jet, and Combustion Man.
- King Of All Cosmos: The lion-turtle from the finale, while probably not God, is the oldest, largest, and wisest living thing in the world.
- Koan: Half the things that Iroh says to Zuko, to Zuko's annoyance.
- Also Hue: "Time is an illusion, and so is death."
- Lampshade Hanging: It's hard to see what's going on in The Ember Island Players for all the lampshades.
- Last Of His Kind - Aang. He happens to be The Last Airbender.
- Lemon Wacky Hello: Sokka in the desert episode
- Liar Liar: Azula
- Limp And Livid: Used as a sign of Azula's progressing insanity.
- Live Action Adaptation: A movie has been announced; the scriptwriter and planned director is M. Night Shyamalan. With the decision not to use animation and the lackluster level of Shyamalan's most recent movies, the news did not intially set well for a majority of the fans. The creators, however, recently have voiced their enthusiastic approval. Though still in its early stages, this comes as an enormous relief to many fans, who feared that the movie would diverge significantly from the storyline and that the co-creators would be left completely out of the creative process.
- Locked In A Room: Subverted: Katara and Zuko get trapped in a cave, but no moral is learned and no loyalties change.
- Love At First Sight: Aang towards Katara; Sokka and Yue
- Love Dodecahedron - Mostly due to the massive shipping opportunities the fans exploit. In the show itself it doesn't get in the way except for the occasional Ship Tease. This was actually parodied at Comic-Con with a list of every possible pairing and the associated Portmanteau Couple Name. (Lo-Iroh-Li?)
- Luke I Am Your Father: Roku, Aang's spiritual predecessor, was Zuko's maternal great grandfather.
- Machiavelli Was Wrong: "I love Zuko more than I fear you."
- Mac Guffin: The frozen frogs in The Blue Spirit were mostly a method to separate Aang from the group and give the episode a race against time.
- Made Of Iron: Pretty much everyone, to some degree or another; especially when Earthbending gets involved, or after falling 50 feet.
- Magitek: The use of bending as industry and as a proxy for modern technology.
- Making A Splash: Waterbenders
- Malfunction Malady: Aang's sneezes launch him 10 feet into the air, though this is arguable; Aang is known for being playful.
- Mama Bear: Ursa. Katara has moments of this (her threats to Zuko in season 3).
- Market Based Title: Avatar: The Legend of Aang in the UK, where "bender" is derogatory slang for a male homosexual.
- Master Of The Mixed Message: Katara. Good lord. Katara.
- Melee A Trois: the end of "The Chase"
- Memetic Badass: Iroh, Toph, "Wang Fire", Melon Lord.
- Metaphorgotten:
Suki: The king of... guys... who... don't win?
Toph: ...leave the nicknames to us, honey.
- Mexican Stand Off: The end of "The Chase"
- Milky White Eyes
- Mind Control Eyes: The Manchurian Agents
- Minion Shipping: Zuko and Mai
- Missed Moment Of Awesome: Iroh's escape from the Fire Nation prison in Season 3 was never seen.
- Mix And Match Critters: Started off for fun by Bryan Konietzko, but it wasn't long before the writers caught on. Now he and the character designers are mostly trying to keep up with their crazy ideas. Lampshaded when it was mentioned a certain character wanted to exhibit his bear. The characters who weren't reading the announcement immediately assumed Katara meant some hybrid animal.
- Moment Killer: Quite a few. Then again, this is a series with an unusual amount of Ship Tease.
- Mood Swinger: Katara, to the point of a meme about how "it must be her time of the month."
- Doubly interesting due to waterbenders' close connection to the moon.
- Multiple Demographic Appeal
- Mushroom Samba: "Cactus Juice; it'll quench ya."
- Narm: Seriously, you cannot watch Zuko shouting at the sky without picturing Bruce Almighty in your head.
- And Zuko's idea of a romantic line: "I love it when you hate the world."
- Never Say Die: Averted with everyone that died before the series started, as well as death threats. On the other hand the fate of the
four three named characters that died during the show was systematically pussyfooted around (though all three were confirmed by Word Of God). They even managed to lampshade the ambiguity without actually saying that the characters died.
- New Age Retro Hippie: the "nomads" the Gaang run into during "The Cave of Two Lovers"
- New Old Flame: Mai
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: several Professional Wrestlers in "The Blind Bandit", most obvious "The Boulder"
- No Conservation Of Energy: Bending itself. Noether is spinning in her grave.
- No One Could Survive That: Aang's apparent death by lightning in the second season finale
- No Pronunciation Guide: Be honest...how many people still insist on pronouncing Toph's name with a long "O" sound (Tōph)? Or Mai's like it rhymes with eye.
- No Rest For The Wicked: Aang in "Nightmares and Daydreams"
- Non Lethal Warfare
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now: Horribly invoked by Sokka in "The Earth King". And just a minute short of the credits too.
- Not So Different: Aang and Zuko
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Iroh in "Sokka's Master"; King Bumi pretty much all the time.
- Official Couple: Aang and Katara, Zuko and Mai, Sokka and Suki
- Old Master: Bumi, Iroh, Pakku, Gyatso, Roku and others.
- The Only One Allowed To Defeat You: In the first season, Zuko needs to capture Aang to regain his honor, and will go as far as breaking him out of custody when somebody else from his nation catches him.
- Open The Iris: Sokka's Mushroom Samba a la Cactus Juice in "The Desert"; people who have been to Lake Laogai.
- Opening Narration
Katara: "Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar — an airbender named Aang. Although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."
- Orphaned Punchline: At one point Zuko tells Iroh's favourite joke. Trouble is, Zuko can only remember the punchline.
"Leaf me alone, I'm bushed!"
- The Other Darrin: Iroh's voice actor, Mako, died, and was replaced by Greg Baldwin.
- Oubliette
- Overprotective Dad: Toph left the Big Fancy House of House Bei Fong for a reason.
- Pale Skinned Brunette: Mai, Azula, Zuko, Toph, June
- Parental Abandonment: A good number of heroes and bad guys, but especially Zuko, who's father practically disowned him.
- Disappeared Dad: All the adult males in Katara and Sokka's entire village, Aang's father-figure, Gyatso.
- Parental Substitute: Iroh ends up being a better father figure for Zuko than Ozai.
- Missing Mom: Katara and Sokka. Zuko and Azula. Yue. Just for starters.
- Person Of Mass Destruction: Some benders, more often than not Earth Benders, can be quite destructive. And a fully realized Avatar is like this with all the elements... and that's before they go into the Godlike Avatar State.
- Playing With Fire: Firebenders, obviously.
- And Aang, who thought it was cool at first, until he learned better.
- Power Floats: Again, Aang when in the Avatar State.
- Power Glows: Aang when in the Avatar State.
- The Power Of Love: The Machiavelli Was Wrong example on this page.
- Power Tattoo: Aang
- Power Trio: Azula, Mai and Ty Lee.
- Praetorian Guard: Azula has one when she's introduced, but they're not too useful.
- Precision Guided Boomerang: Sokka's boomerang always comes back. Lampshaded frequently:
Sokka: Boomerang! You really do always come back!
- Subverted in the Grand Finale, when it doesn't. And subsequently lampshaded
Sokka: I don't think boomerang's coming back.
- Pretty In Mink: The South Polar people. Justified, considering where they live, but their coats seem to be made for style as much as warmth.
- Professional Wrestling: Brilliantly skewered in "The Blind Bandit," complete with Kayfabe.
- Psycho Electro: Azula and Ozai.
- Psychotic Smirk: Azula does this a lot, as does her father Ozai and Long Feng. Joo Dee, as well, to some extent, but her creepy smile doesn't fit into a trope as "Brainwashed Cheshire Cat" doesn't exist, as far as this troper knows.
- Put On A Bus: Zuko's ship crew and The Earth King and his Bear
- Pyro Maniac: Azula, especially post-VBD
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.
- Race Lift: The show has an East Asian feel but The Movie has so far casted people of either caucasian or Indian ethnicity.
- Rage Against The Reflection: Azula.
- The Rashomon: "The Great Divide"
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Aang is literally 112 years old, but spend one hundred of those years as a Human Popsicle.
- Rebel Relaxation: Jet is fond of this, complete with a piece of straw in his mouth much like a cigarette, effectively wooing Katara (in the episode 'Jet') because All Girls Want Bad Boys.
- Recap Episode: "The Legend So Far" mini-episode, shown right before the penultimate episode of the first season, and narrated by the voice of Spirit Advisor Avatar Roku.
- And "The Boy in the Iceberg".
- The Red Sonja: Azula shows this potential in "The Beach".
- Redemption Equals Death: Jet
- Redemption Quest: Inverted, Zuko was initially on a quest to prove he was evil enough to his father.
- Redundant Researcher: Professor Zei (from "The Library")
- Refuge In Audacity: While most kids on TV Cant Get Away With Nuthin, in the episode "The Runaway", the crew pull a series of schemes that includes Toph pulling a Flopsy on a nobleman. Seriously.
- Regent For Life: Long Feng
- Royally Screwed Up: The Fire Nation nobility. Full Stop.
- Runaway Fiance: Part of Kanna's backstory.
- Running Gag: Several
- Sand Is Water: The sandbenders sail around on it.
- Scenery Porn: Seriously, the background art is gorgeous.
- Sealed With A Kiss
- Serious Business: Azula's reaction to winning a game of, essentially, beach volleyball in "The Beach":
Azula: Yes, we defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation! (pause) Well that was fun.
- Shadow Archetype: Katara and Azula.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: Spoofed, with the first appearance of Momo.
- Shallow Love Interest: Yue; sort of unavoidable when you die after three episodes.
- Shipping: Egads, the shipping rivals Harry Potter...
- Ship Sinking: They sink ships with nukes on this show.
- Ship Tease: The writers of this show are absolute masters of this craft; in addition to the nigh-constant ship teasing actually in the show, the creators did up some omake of the most brutal ship tease in the history of the universe.
- Shipper On Deck: Jun, the Patron Saint of Zutara.
- Shirtless Scene: Every major male character eventually; one of Zuko's came complete with Disturbed Doves!
- Shock And Awe: Experienced Firebenders are able to bend lightning.
- Shoot The Dog: Avatar Yangchen was a proponent of this, and advised Aang to kill Ozai, claiming that his own spiritual needs would have to be sacrificed for the greater good, because she believes his role as the Avatar supercedes his teachings as an Airbender.
- Kyoshi has shades of this as well, though not to the same extent as Yangchen. When Aang consults her about what to do about Ozai, she takes responsibility for the accidental death of Chen the Conqueror, claiming that although she didn't kill him, she would have if it had come to that.
- Shout Out
- Shown Their Work: The creators went to painstakingly notorious detail to shape the entire series.
- Shut Up Kiss: Sokka and Suki in "The Serpent's Pass"; Aang and Katara in "The Invasion"
- Silent Bob: Longshot
- Single Palette Town: In fact, single palette continents: Nearly all Earth Kingdom residents wear a green & brown motif, Fire Nationers wear red, Water Tribers wear blue. Presumably, air nomads wore yellow, but we don't see too many, what with Aang being the last and all.
- Slasher Smile: Azula's Psychotic Smirk becomes this after her Villainous Breakdown.
- Slobs Versus Snobs
- Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter: Zuko's rant at the storm in "Bitter Work"
- Smug Snake: Admiral Zhao. Seriously, when your Establishing Character Moment is getting your ass handed to you by both a teenager and an old man in the same ten minute interval, you should start considering the possibility that maybe you're not as awesome as you think you are.
- Snipe Hunt: The terms of Zuko's banishment. Track down someone not seen for 100 years and you can come home again? Riiiight.
- Soft Water: In the finale, when the crew members on the airship are dumped into the water.
- To be fair, the airship was fairly low when they were dropped. And it happens again in the finale battle with Ozai, though Aang was waterbending.
- Sorry I Left The BGM On: "The Blue Spirit" and "The Painted Lady".
- Sphere Of Power
- Spirit Advisor: Avatar Roku
- Stepford Smiler - "Welcome to Ba Sing Se!"
- Stuff Blowing Up: Azula seems to think a volley ball-like game called Kuai Ball requires explosions.
- Stylistic Suck: In "The Ember Island Players"
- Subverted Trope - Several of 'em.
- Super Mode: The Avatar State
- Surrogate Soliloquy: Aang and Momo
- Sword Fight: The much looked forward to dual dao sabers vs. twin tiger-head hook sword face-off; overlaps with Evasive Fight Thread Episode.
- Sword Over Head: After Zuko defeats his arch rival, Commander Zhao, in an Agni Kai (one-on-one Firebender duel), Zhao expects Zuko to kill him with a Finishing Move, but to his surprise, Zuko spares him, blasting the ground near his head.
- Survival Mantra: "Azula always lies, Azula always lies..."
- Survivor Guilt: Aang
- Take A Third Option: Aang chi-bends Ozai to no longer be capable of firebending rather than kill him or lose to him.
- Also: Ozai could either kill Zuko, or give up his claim to the throne. Instead Ursa took a third option for him, assassinating Azulon and setting Ozai up as heir.
- Taking The Bullet: Zuko to Katara, from Azula.
- Tasty Gold: Trope Namer
- Tempting Fate: Sokka is to blame for 70% of instances relating to this trope.
- Tired Of Running: Zuko chooses to fight Azula rather than run in the Season 2 Finale.
- Thats No Moon: The Lion-Turtle Island.
- This Is Something Hes Got To Do Himself - The Final Battle
- This Is Sparta: Sokka: "WHERE?! IS?! SUKI?!?!" Zuko: "Where. Is. My mother?"
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Aang
- Throw It In: Sokka's humor and mannerisms were derived from the improvisations of his comedian voice actor.
- Additionally, in the episode The Ember Island Players the entire show was parodied hilariously by a play. The actor parodying Sokka was rather Unfunny and so Sokka tried to fix it by substituting his own jokes with even more hilarious results.
- Thunderbolt Iron: Sokka's sword.
- Tongue On The Flagpole: Only with Aang's glider.
- Took A Level In Badass: Sokka in the third season.
- To a much greater extent, Katara between season one and two.
- Total Eclipse Of The Plot
- Totally Radical: Book 3, Episode 2, with in-universe slang.
Sokka: 'Flame-eo?'
- Trademark Favorite Food: Iroh loves his tea.
- Training Montage: In "Sokka's Master", which is, in essence, one episode-long Training Montage
- Training From Hell: For Aang, Earthbending tutelage under Toph.
- Transformation Is A Free Action (Azula is Dangerously Genre Savvy in this regard.)
- Traveling At The Speed Of Plot
- TV Teen: Both played straight (everyone's skin is perfect, and some of the VAs are well past 30) and wildly subverted (see Getting Crap Past The Radar for an exhaustive list of implied offscreen teen sex...)
- Twist Ending: Prominent throughout Season 2, in contrast to the usual "ride off happily into the sunset" endings of most episodes in season 1. One episode in which it was played with ironically contained several plot twists at the end. The episode later received an Emmy Nom.
- The Unfavorite: Zuko
- Unpronounceable Alias: The page quote for this trope comes from the episode "The King of Omashu".
- Unstoppable Rage: The Avatar State
- Victory Is Boring: Although not a usual case, Mai's declaration after beating Katara and Sokka is the Trope Namer.
- Villain Episode: "Zuko Alone"
- Villainous Breakdown: Azula practically embodies this trope.
- Voice Of The Legion
- Walking The Earth: Season 1; overlaps with Stern Chase
- Wangst: Zuko occasionally; Aang more intermittently.
- Well Done Son Guy: Guess who.
- We Will Meet Again: Said by Koh to Aang. They still haven't, but hey, it's been less than a year.
- Wham Episode: "The Crossroads of Destiny"
- What An Idiot: Delectable tea or deadly poison, anyone?
- What Could Have Been: See also Cliff Hanger above. The production staff even planned a storyboard for it and everything...
- What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Shows up a few times, usually played for comedy.
- What Happened To The Mouse: What happened to Smellerbee and Longshot after the season two finale?
- What Would X Do: "What would Uncle do?" is a question Zuko frequently asks himself when trying to do the right thing in season 3.
- White Haired Pretty Girl : Princess Yue
- Whole Episode Flashback: "The Storm", "Appa's Lost Days", "Zuko Alone", "The Avatar and the Firelord"
- Who Would Want To Watch Us: "The Ember Island Players"
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: A group try to force Aang into the Avatar State. It works, but Aang almost destroys the complex and everyone inside.
- With My Hands Tied: In the first episode, Aang tells some guards that he could take them with his hands behind his back. King Bumi also manages to show his skill while trapped in a solid metal box.
- Aang explicitly asks how Bumi is able to Earthbend while in said box, with his body locked in place. Bumi's response: "They didn't cover up my face!
- Woman Scorned: Mai, in The Boiling Rock
- World Of Cardboard Speech: Zuko's Calling The Old Man Out
- You Cant Go Home Again: Zuko for the first two seasons. Aang... well, check the U.S. title.
- You Dont Want To Catch This: Pentapox.
- I think I've heard of that!
- Your Costume Needs Work: Twice. Aang tries to get his group free passage on the ferry to Ba Sing Se, and the woman taking tickets doesn't find his Avatar costume any more believable than those in the nearby group of
Aang cosplayers impersonators. Later, "The Ember Island Players," a kid tells Zuko his "Zuko costume" is great, but his scar's on the wrong side of his face.
- Yuppie Couple: The Cabbage Merchant
- Zeppelins From Another World
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