That also means that in a way, the avatar is responsible for practically everything that shaped the world and all the consequences that came out of it. Hence the need to keep reincarnating.
- The nations themselves predate the Avatar in the form of Lion-Turtle cities, but Avatar Wan was the first human to travel the world and reveal the existence of other nations to each other.
The old masters were great teachers, but not for the Avatar: Pakku treated Aang like any other student (which sounds fair until you realize that Aang does need special attention since he has to master the elements much faster than other students do), Yu didn't even know that Aang was the Avatar until Toph's parents sent him to track her down, and Jeong Jeong couldn't teach him because of the circumstances.
So just who Katara, Toph, and Zuko reincarnated from? My guess is that they follow the same Avatar cycle. In "The Guru" it is implied that Katara is the reincarnation an Air Nomad (whoever formally taught Roku). It also was pretty much stated that Toph was destined to be Aang's earthbending teacher so she would be the reincarnation of Roku's waterbending teacher and that leaves Zuko as the reincarnation of his earthbending teacher. Of course that means the Zuko must have died just before Tenzin was born, which is unlikely since it's been confirmed that he's not dead.
- Jossed Katara's still alive by the time The Legend of Korra starts. But destiny probably does has something to do with who teaches the Avatar.
- Remember, though, Gyatso is the one who taught Roku airbending, and in his old age he taught Aang airbending as well. Katara thus becomes a Gyatso analogue.
- Gyatso didn't teach Roku air bending, they were both learning it at the same time.
- This still works, as Katara and Aang started formal waterbending training at the same time. Katara just picked it up much faster.
- Remember, though, Gyatso is the one who taught Roku airbending, and in his old age he taught Aang airbending as well. Katara thus becomes a Gyatso analogue.
- Zuko's not dead either, he's off wandering the world, and appears in Book 3. Toph follows in Book 4. Only Aang and Sokka are confirmed dead.
- Or maybe, they don't always follow the cycle. Also, it IS possible for Zuko to be Korra's first master, alongside Katara.
Aang falls in love with Katara. Air > Water
Roku falls in love with Ta Min. Fire > Air
Kyoshi falls in love with Rangi, a firebender, in The Rise of Kyoshi. Earth > Fire
Kuruk fell in love with Ummi, who had brown eyes, so maybe mixed. Water > Earth.
Yangchen gave a long speech that excused the Avatar from the Air quest to let all love and connection go. One can infer that she learned this from personal experience. Like the nun of Canterbury Tales, she is wearing a figurative pendant engraved with "Amor Vincit Omnia (Love Conquers all)." She also implies that she had to kill someone.
- Ta Min was from the Fire Nation.
- :cough: Hence the initial note "Refer to theory above."
- Jossed: The next avatar, Korra, falls in love with Mako, a firebender.
- Not Jossed, the WMG says usually. So this WMG could still be true with Korra an exception.
- The Legend of Korra isn't over yet. Mako and Korra break up in the Season 2 Finale, and the first boy to show interest in Korra in the show is Bolin, an Earth Bender. So not necessarily jossed.
- Ta Min being Air Nomad adds another layer of tragedy to Sozin's massacre of the Air nation - if his best friend's wife was from the Air Nomads, it shows how far gone he really was to massacre them.
- Jossed. Korra ends up with Asami, a nonbender who could be of Fire Nation heritage.
- Agreed. Waterbending and airbending together do not eternal youth in suspended animation make. He must have been messing with the wibbly wobbly timey wimey substance itself!
- My personal version of this? Iroh's journey after Lu Ten's death involved a certain blue box and time-lord. If the Spirit World is just another dimension, it certainly explains a lot.
- ... excuse me, I have a fanfiction to write.
- If you put it this way, you could say that Roku's plan was a full success.
- Ummmm why would he cause the death of so many just to go back to square 1/
- Rebuttal: While unconscious from Azula's lightning bolt, Aang undertook a journey to the spirit world to ensure the safety of both his soul and his previous incarnations, as was shown in the companion online game (script located here: http://www.avatarspiritmedia.net/transcripts.php scroll down to specials, and look for the labels "Avatar Escape online comic.) Secondly, Aang did unlock the Avatar state; thank goodness for Deus ex Machina! As to Aang being the ''last' Avatar...
- Jossed by the new Avatar series coming out, The Legend of Korra, about the next avatar after Aang.
- Word of God is that there have been other Avatars who have mastered Energybending.
- Only the last Air Nomad Avatar explicitly said that Aang should kill Ozai, the rest told him to mete out justice, be decisive, and pay attention (or something like that). Removing his bending ablities so he's pretty much harmless seems to fit. Though not mentioning spiritbending is a prudent move if they're afraid Ozai could destroy Aang's spirit, and making a second megalomaniac with all the Avatar's powers.
- Possibly they were leaving it up to Aang to make a decision with his own moral compass, rather than making him consider something that goes against what he believes. (rather important for an Avatar) Whether it be killing him, depowering him, imprisoning him, etc.
- In the The Legend of Korra we find out that the first Avatar definitely knew about energybending, since that's how he gained bending in the first place.
- It could be possible for a person to learn to bend all four elements- it would just take a long time, and require an intense amount of training and concentration to do it.
- If the experience of the Avatars is anything to go by, the complimentary element to the birth element is fairly easy to pick up, so a talented bender might be able to learn the element complementary to their first element relatively easily, but mastering both within a single human lifetime without drawing on the accumulated wisdom of multiple past lives would be challenging. The opposite element is very hard to learn, so perhaps an extremely talented non-avatar bender might then be able to master two elements and pick up the rudiments of the third, but mastering three would be nigh impossible. The fourth element is actually contradictory and deceptively difficult or downright dangerous, and even trying to learn it is probably a bad idea. Any Airbenders bold/crazy enough to try to learn Firebending, for example, probably got themselves (and any bystanders within range) killed early on.
- Iroh sort of touched on this. He encouraged Zuko to learn water-bending( in a sense) to master lightning bending. I believe if Iroh was really committed and stuck to it, he would have been able to learn waterbending. Also it is possible that if they practice a certain element( although they wouldn't necessarily be able to use it) they could unlock another ability of their own element. Iroh practiced the fluid movements of waterbending and eventually translated into lightning. Toph did something similar. Earthbending is very fast paced and hard-hitting, not much tactical fighting in earthbending. Although she never really practiced it, Toph was forced her whole life to think like an airbender. Because of her blindness she had to focus more, become more tactical, and actually dodge attacks(while other earthbenders would mostly just shield themselves. Because of her "airbender" mind, she was able to think strategically on how she could escape the metal box she was in. And with her sharp, analytical "airbender" mind, she realized that their are tiny earth particles in metal that can be manipulated. It may not be the same, but Hama that could bloodbend learned it from viewing the corruption and manipulation of firebenders. She drew from this and eventually unlocked her "blood manipulating" potential..........................................One more thing. What would be a secondary power for air? I hope they come up with something for that. I was thinking maybe steam or smoke, but that's not as interesting, and hasn't that been done already? It's not really a secondary power anyway. Hmmmmm
- I'd put this as Jossed, the story of the first Avatar showed that Wan could only carry one element at a time, and Raava had to carry the others, until they fused and he truly became the Avatar, meaning that without a spirit merged with them a person can only get one type of bending.
- Unfortunately this is impossible. As we see in the first episode of series 2 the Fire Nation Avatar before Roku was also male.
- I think that was just A previous Fire Nation Avatar, not necessarily the one immediately proceeding Ruko.
- This could work, only it flips at every 5 incarnations of the Avatar to allow for the 'two male Fire Avatars in a row' problem. Aang is a flip point, said male Fire Avatar was a flip point, and 5 incarnations after Aang, the next Water bender Avatar after Korra will be male. This is why no-one in-universe has picked up on the flip- they expect it to happen at a set point, i.e. air, in the cycle and also, no-one has lived for more than 2 Avatars due to dying of old age.
- I think that was just A previous Fire Nation Avatar, not necessarily the one immediately proceeding Ruko.
- According to the Avatar wiki, the Avatars are randomly gendered (in theory). More details here.
- Also, as it turns out the first Avatar was a Firebender
- Or a bender might master one element and at best be better-than-average (but not a true master) with the other three.
- This troper is officially subscribed to this theory!
- Aang died and so did the avatar spirit, if he died so the avatar would never happen ever again.
- Jossed. The next Avatar isn't born until after Aang's death before The Legend Of Korra.
- both Roku and the previous Fire avatar were male.
- The known order is Earth Male, Fire Male, Air Female (Yangchen), Water Male (Kuruk), Earth Female (Kyoshi), Fire Male (Roku), Air Male (Aang), Water Female (Korra). M->M->F->M->F (->M->M->F). The next set of Avatars may be an Earth Male, a Fire Female, an Air Male, a Water Male, an Earth Female, a Fire Male, an Air Female, a Water Male, an Earth Male, a Fire Female, an Air Male, a Water Female, an Earth Male, a Fire Male, an Air Female...
- Roku was the Fire male. The Fire female has not been born yet.
- Yangchen was the Air Female. Aang was the Air Male.
- Kuruk was the Water Male. Korra, the incumbent, is the Water Female.
- Kyoshi was the Earth Female. The Earth male has not been born yet.
- Jossed as of LoK season 2, which reveals that the first Avatar was created, not born.
- But the first element in the cycle isn't air. Don't the elements correspond to seasons? Earth-Spring, Fire-Summer, Air-Fall and Water-Winter (At least, that's what I always thought). By that logic, the first Avatar would be an Earth Avatar.
- If you go by the beginning of the Roman Calender, It would be a water one, as winter starts and ends the year. Same thing on the Chinese calender.
- Actually, the first month in the Roman Calender is March. It wasn't until Christianity overturned the Roman Empire that the months were renumbered so that January was the first month instead of the eleventh, placing the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord as New Year's Day.
- Wait, what do our calenders have to do with anything? The Avatar world follows an Alternative Calendar; it's possible that for them, the year starts in autumn.
- If you go by the beginning of the Roman Calender, It would be a water one, as winter starts and ends the year. Same thing on the Chinese calender.
- Jossed as of LoK season 2. Wan started with fire, and air was his second element.
- Wan, the first Avatar, would therefore have been the weakest.
- Which means that Korra being permanently cut off from previous Avatars after losing the connection to Raava permanently damaged the Avatar Cycle, Korra is as weak as Wan had been post-Book-2, and subsequent Avatars will be substantially weaker than Aang, Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, or Yangchen.
- Confirmed in a way. The actual Avatar spirit was revealed to be the light spirit Raava, but this doesn't come up until halfway through The Legend of Korra's second Book.
- Maybe because she's just talented? Because I don't really see why being a skilled bender of the right element means you must have been destined to be the Avatar. At any rate, it'd also be strange that the powers-that-be were all-powerful and all-knowing enough to decide who's "destined" to become an Avatar before they even exist yet, yet when Aang freezes himself for 100 years they're just like "whoops, didn't see that coming. Sorry Katara."
- Further supported because Katara is a powerful and prodigious water bender despite none of her immediate family being to bend at all.
- If Aang didn't run away and/or froze himself, he most likely would have been killed in the air nomad genocide, 86 years before Katara was born.
- or escaped and lived past 112 the normal way.
- If the elders, including Gyatso, didn't survive I doubt Aang would. (Also he would have had to have died at 98 for Katara to be born the next Avatar, she's 14 remember.)
- Aang was an airbending master and the Avatar he had the best chance at getting away of anyone there (and the monks would have been willing to die in order to guarantee his escape). and if it happened it would have been likely for him to have still been alive during the present time of the series (Avatars tend to live a long time and if he could escape when they know were he is he could definitely avoid them when they don't), meaning Katara couldn't have been the Avatar even if Aang escaped (which was why i mentioned that Aang probably would have made it to 112 the normal way if he escaped)
- or escaped and lived past 112 the normal way.
- Guru Pathik tries to teach Aang to reach this enlightened state by unlocking all of his chakras. He says that once Aang does this, he will be able to control the Avatar state and enter into it at will. Had Aang truly mastered the final chakra, detaching himself from the world, he would have remained permanently in the Avatar state, eventually dying in a state of enlightenment. As Avatar Roku said, if Aang were to die in such a state, it would end the Avatar cycle — the Avatar would reach Nirvana.
- Unfortunately, the Avatar never seems able or willing to fully unlock that last chakra. In almost every instance in which Aang enters the Avatar state, he is brought back by Katara — his last attachment to the mortal world. And the same sort of thing is implied to have happened to Avatar Kuruk — after a life of seeking detachment from the world's suffering, he is re-attached to the world when Koh steals the face of the woman he loves.
- It seems likely that every Avatar, reflecting on the generations of suffering s/he has lived through, has had at least one moment of doubt wherein they contemplated remaining in the Avatar state. But each time, their attachment to the world has held them back, forced to stand on the precipice of paradise, but not entering until every other soul has been safely shepherded through. No wonder Aang didn't want to be the Avatar.
- Buddhism knows a condition known as Bodhisattva, which means an enlightened person who consciously refuses to enter Nirvana in order to help others to achieve it. This, I feel, is pretty close to the condition of the Avatar in the series.
- In the Avatar and the Firelord, Sozin said that Roku was gone for 12 years. Considering how Roku said it took him awhile to learn waterbending because it was challenging to him, I thought that maybe it'd take about 5 years to learn one's opposing element. 3 years is how long it would take to learn the next element in the cycle. (Look how fast Aang was able to master waterbending!) And then the last element would take 4 years, because its the easiest to pick up but the hardest to master.
It could be contended that The Legend of Korra josses this theory because Republic City is easily more technologically advanced than, say, Xerxes. But what if that level of sophisticated tech didn't reach much farther than the Republic (and Fire Nation) and then something else happened that eventually drove it all back? Flight vehicles, which there were plenty of in ATLA, don't seem to exist in FMA either, so even the earlier version of this theory was working on similar logic from the getgo.
- Alternatively, the Avatar Spirit was a Lion Turtle, or a conglomeration of Lion Turtle spirits.
- Alternatively again, the Lion Turtles used Energybending to fuse 4 benders, one from each element, into the Avatar Spirit. That way, the first Avatar, and all others thereafter, could bend all four elements.
- Semi-confirmed as of LoK season 2. The Lion Turtles gave people the power of the elements (including Wan), but it was his partnership with Raava, the primordial spirit of light, that initially enabled him to handle more than one element at a time.
- Which also means Katara saved all of existence as we know it for the Avatar world by not helping Zuko. I believe this now.
- Where is it stated that the Avatar Spirit is the spirit of the planet? Also, if killing the Avatar in the Avatar State would destroy the planet, why didn't Roku mention anything about that to Aang when he told him what would happen if the Avatar dies in the AS?
- Semi-confirmed. The Avatar Spirit, as of LoK season 2, is revealed to be Raava, the primordial spirit of light. Eliminating her would possibly free her dark counterpart Vaatu, who would utterly destroy the world.
- Jossed as of LoK season 2. Wan's ancestors aren't discussed, but before he started Walking the Earth, humans were separated from one another and couldn't travel from city to city. So all of his ancestors would have been from the same city he came from.
- Made even better when you realize that all future air benders-including the next Air Nomad Avatar-is bound to be a descendant of Aang.
- In season 2 of The Legend of Korra, we find out Korra's dad was originally from the Northern Tribe, so he could certainly be related to Kuruk. On the other hand, as of season 3, there are numerous airbenders not related to Aang, so the next airbending Avatar doesn't have to be his descendant.
- Avatar Wan lived 10,000 years ago. Considering that Ghenghis Khan's descendants make up 1% of Earth's population and Ghenghis Khan lived 800 years ago, almost everyone being descended from Wan is a possibility.
- If this theory is correct, then the next Fire Nation Avatar could be the Fire Lord, since all Fire Lords as of Zuko are descended from Roku.
- Toph and Kyoshi are related, it makes so much sense.
- Gyotsu is Yang Chen's Grandson
- Not likely, Yang Chen was the Avatar before Kuruk and Kyoshi. Kyoshi lived to be at least 200 years old. Unless...
- Bumi lived at least 112 years and Pathik for at least 150. Benders having very long lives wouldn't be out of the question.
- Raava seems to be the Avatar's Morality Chain.
- So Fang is Appa is Naga? I like it!
- This theory doesn't really jibe with The Winter Solstice Part 1. In that episode we see that Fang's spirit is now living in the spirit world. The spirit even flies past Appa while Appa is fully awake and conscious, which wouldn't work if Fang's spirit was the same as Appa's spirit.
- But the whole Winter Solstice Arc is about the fact that the spirits of the other Avatars live on within the Avatar, and in season 1 finale of LOK Aang was able to interact with Korra to restore her bending without Korra being unconscious, so it's possible that Appa and Fang are the same situation.
- If the Avatar's bank account hadn't been looted by the Fire Nation (or was paid back in full by Fire Lord Zuko), Aang would be sitting on an enormous mountain of cash at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Korra would have had enough money for a buyout of Future Industries in The Legend of Korra.
- Interesting theory, but for both Aang and Korra, there were personal reasons for not mastering one element. When Jeong Jeong was teaching Aang, he was actually pretty quick to learn firebending, much quicker than he was with earthbending. It was only the trauma of hurting Katara which stopped him from learning more, not any inherent weakness. As for Korra, it seems the reasons why it took her longer to learn airbending than the other elements were her non-spiritual, down-to-earth personality, and the fact that there was only one person alive who could teach her to airbend. Roku explicitly said that waterbending, not earthbending, was the most difficult for him to learn. And just because Kyoshi is never seen waterbending isn't enough to suggest it was her weak element; there is only scene in the whole series where we see her bending, so there simply isn't enough evidence to judge her waterbending skills.
- A fully realized one that is. Notice how all of the extremely powerful techniques are done by Avatars?
- Aang raised the entire sea level to put out the fires after his battle with Ozai.
- Volcanic eruption and lava bending have only been done by Avatars. This one is retroactively Jossed in LoK's Book 3, where one of the villains, Ghazan, is a lavabender. Team Korra member Bolin also becomes a lavabender by the end of the Book, and is the sole practitioner in Book 4.
- Large mass moving: Kyoshi literally bent a large area of land miles away from the mainland to create Kyoshi's Island. I doubt any regular bender could even attempt that!
- Create storms: okay this one I mostly made up, but in book 2 episode 1 Yangchen was shown creating powerful winds that roughly blew a large field.
- All of these are a matter of power and not technique. Moving landmasses and creating storms is basically the same as moving a boulder or creating a gust, it just takes a lot more power. As for the special techniques, such as lightningbending, lavabending, bloodbending or metalbending, Avatars don't seem any better at it than some normal benders (Aang didn't learn any of those, for example, and Korra only learned metalbending). Which is understandable, because Avatar is basically Jack of All Trades on massive amount of dope compensating for being Master of None (or just their native element).
- This theory doesn't work, because the Fire Nation Avatar before Roku was also male.
Now why then, in the flashbacks, was Raava female to the male Wan? well I have 2 theories there.
1 - Raava only began changing genders when Wan died and was reincarnated, Raava was already female when they merged with Wan, so they remained female until they reincarnated, at which point they were effected by the gendered nature of humanity.
2 - Raava may have become male when they merged with Wan, or even been male when they met, but we witnessed his story through Korra, and she heard Raava and Vaatu as they are now, for her, instead of as they truly were for Wan.
Obviously if the theory is true to keep their mirror opposites deal, Vaatu would, presumably, change genders when Raava does.