History Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoyInTheIceberg

* ActorAllusion: One of Aang (voiced by Creator/ZachTylerEisen)'s first lines is asking Katara if she wants to go [[WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans penguin]] sliding.

While fishing, Sokka and Katara discover Aang and his ten-ton, six-legged sky bison Appa icebound floating on the sea. After freeing them, they discover that Aang is an Airbender from the Air Nomads, a race of people assumed to have died out a hundred years before. When he goes with them to the water tribe he doesn't reveal that he is the Avatar, that has the ability to bend the four elements. The Avatar is reincarnated generation after generation and would be the only one who could prevent the Fire Nation from conquering all the nations, which is why the Fire Nation exterminated the Air Nomads, Aang's people. Meanwhile, Zuko, the banished Prince of the Fire Nation, is patrolling the seas in search of the Avatar. While exploring an abandoned Fire Nation ship, Katara tells Aang about the war that had been going on for the past hundred years. They accidentally set off a light beam in the ship, which alerts Zuko to the village.

* AsYouKnow: The beginning has Katara and Sokka yelling at one another, Katara starting on Sokka for calling waterbending magic, allowing him to recite previous times she's corrected him on this fact, for the audience's benefit.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Zuko happens to be looking for the Avatar at the South Pole the same day he wakes up from a century long sleep.

** Also, Katara's gushing of Aang presumably filled with knowledge and wisdom. Cue TongueOnTheFlagpole.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Check the very sinister DeathGlare Iroh shoots Zuko early on, a far cry from the nigh-perpetually good-natured old man he is for the rest of the series, especially towards his nephew.
** Despite being MixAndMatchCritters, the "penguins" are simply called that by Aang, and Momo and Appa are a lemur and bison respectively, albeit flying ones. Going forward, many of the world's creatures are referred to by double names, with the exception of maybe one or two.

** Katara inadvertently breaks open an iceberg during an angry rant to Sokka about having to look after everything - and a moment later rushes to rescue an unknown boy, establishing her as a TeamMom, [[{{ChronicHeroSyndrome}} naturally heroic]] and more powerful than she realises.
** Sokka complains about being splashed with Katara's "magic spirit" water, but the moment things get dangerous protects her with his own body, establishing him as a ButtMonkey and DeadpanSnarker, but also a [[{{BigBrotherInstinct}} protective big brother.]]
* FlashBack: The dream sequence; the pictures we see in Katara's narration may also count.

* LastOfHisKind: Aang, but also Appa (the last sky-bison) and Katara, the last water-bender left in her tribe.

-->'''Katara:''' Have you ''smelled'' your dirty socks? Let me tell you - NOT PLEASANT!
* PillarOfLight: Zuko's keen enough to know it's worth a look.

* {{Troll}}: When Zuko pressures him into teaching firebending, Iroh reluctantly agrees... right after he finishes the roast duck he just happened to have at hand.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Katara delivers this to Sokka after the above happens, stating that she had taken all the responsibility while Sokka was "playing soldier" since their mother died.

* RageBreakingPoint: One sexist comment from Sokka causes Katara to flip at him.

-->'''Sokka:''' In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing! For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?
-->(''The camera shifts positions to reveal that Sokka was talking to six uninterested boys.'')
-->'''Village boy:''' (''waving his hand'') I gotta pee!

* CoveredInGunge: ButtMonkey Sokka gets covered in Appa snot.

'The Boy in the Iceberg' is the very first episode of Nickelodeon's animated series ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. It introduces the viewers to the world of ''Avatar'', the concept of bending, and the main characters of the first season.

While fishing, Sokka and Katara discover Aang and his ten-ton, six-legged sky bison Appa icebound floating on the sea. After freeing them, they discover that Aang is an Airbender from the Air Nomads, a race of people assumed to have died out a hundred years before. When he goes with them to the water tribe he doesn't reveal that he is the Avatar, that has the ability to bend the four elements. The Avatar is reincarnated generation after generation and would be the only one who could prevent the Fire Nation from conquering all the nations, which is why the Fire Nation exterminated the Air Nomads, Aang's tribe. Meanwhile, Zuko, the banished Prince of the Fire Nation, is patrolling the seas in search of the Avatar. While exploring an abandoned Fire Nation ship, Katara tells Aang about the war that had been going on for the past hundred years. They accidentally set off a light beam in the ship, which alerts Zuko to the village.

** Katara inadvertently breaks open an iceberg during an angry rant to Sokka about having to look after everything, accidentally - and a moment later rushes to rescue an unknown boy, establishing her as a TeamMom, [[{{ChronicHeroSyndrome}} naturally heroic]] and more powerful than she realises.

* OlderThanHeLooks: As Aang says, "Do I look like a one-hundred-and-twelve year old man to you?"

* MixAndMatchCritters: The penguins, which have whiskers and four flippers.

* InsistentTerminology

* RageBreakingPoint: One comment from Sokka causes Katara to flip at him.

* YourOtherLeft

[[caption-width-right:350:Katara breaks Aang out of the iceberg.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Katara breaking Aang out of the iceberg.]]

'The Boy In The Iceberg' is the very first episode of Nickelodeon's animated series ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. It introduces the viewers to the world of ''Avatar'', the concept of bending, and the main characters of the first season.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatar_the_last_airbender_ep_1_page_image.png]]

* CoveredinGunge: ButtMonkey Sokka gets covered in Appa snot.

->"Some people believe that the Avatar was never reincarnated into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken. But I still haven't lost hope."

The series begins with opening narration; in this world, there are are four elements, and with them, four corresponding nations: The Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, Fire Nation and Air Nomads. Our narrator tells us that she's often been told of stories of the 'old days', when the world was at peace, kept in balance by the Avatar - the one person in every generation who controls all four elements. However, one day he simply...vanished. The Fire Nation took advantage of his disappearance, wiping out the Air Nomads and opening war on the entire world.

Since then, one hundred years have passed, and the war continues to rage. Our narrator is revealed to be Katara, a young girl living in the Southern Water Tribe with her brother Sokka. Three years ago the able-bodied men of the tribe, including the chief (their father), left to help fight in the resistance. It doesn't seem likely that they'll win, however - the Fire Nation is gaining ground in the war effort. Nonetheless, Katara is still hopeful that somehow the war can be ended.

And so the show proper begins, revealing a beautiful seascape of ice and water. Sokka and Katara are out fishing in a canoe; Sokka uses a spear while Katara tries using waterbending, to Sokka's irritation. As they argue, they lose track of where their boat is headed, and it is smashed between two icebergs. The siblings continue to argue, until an ill-chosen remark about the problems of taking girls on fishing trips causes Katara to snap and rant about how she does all the real work while Sokka is out "playing soldier". Sokka, however, is more concerned with the effect her anger is having on the iceberg behind her, which shatters from the force of the waves she is raising.

And then, from under the water, comes an eerie blue glow, followed by a near perfect sphere of ice in which the silhouettes of two figures - one a large animal, one a small boy with glowing arrow tattoos - can just be made out. Katara grabs Sokka's club and hacks at the sphere of ice until it shatters, a beacon of bright light shooting high into the sky. The boy emerges from the ice, dazed, and falls into Katara's arms, where he murmurs that he must ask her a very important question: "Will you go penguin sledding with me?"

Introductions are made all around: the boy is Aang, a young airbender (a surprise to Katara and Sokka, who thought the airbenders were wiped out a century ago), and the large, six-legged animal in the iceberg with him is his flying bison, Appa. Sokka is suspicious of Aang's upbeat, playful manner, thinking him a Fire Nation spy who sent the beacon of bright light into the sky to signal the enemy; Katara dismisses the accusation as absurd.

But the beacon was seen by the Fire Nation, even if it wasn't sent to them deliberately; a single Fire Nation ship is sailing the waters near the South Pole. Its passengers include the Fire Lord's son, Prince Zuko, a young man with an almost completely shaved head and horrific burn scar on one side of his face. He is convinced the beam could only have been produced by the Avatar, for whom he has been searching for three years. Zuko's uncle, the retired General Iroh, is accompanying him on his search, and is hesitant to reach the same conclusion as he knows the Avatar has not been seen for a hundred years, but Zuko orders the ship to head for the source of the light.

Back on the iceberg, Aang offers to have Appa fly Katara and Sokka back to their village, but after a century in an iceberg, Appa is still too out of it to fly, and they swim back instead. The next day, as Sokka drills the local "soldiers" (all uninterested boys aged six and under), Katara introduces Aang to the villagers, who are excited to see an airbender after so many years. Katara's grandmother advises her not to put too much faith in the young boy, but Katara is optimistic that she can hone her waterbending skills from a fellow elemental bender. When she pitches the idea to Aang - once she is able to get his attention away from chasing down penguins to go penguin sledding - he observes that airbending and waterbending require different techniques, so she'd need to learn from another waterbender, and she's the last one at the South Pole. In that case, why not go to the North Pole?, Aang suggests. He'd be happy to accompany her - as long as she makes good on her promise to go penguin sledding with him.

Katara happily agrees and they have an exhilarating sled ride together, until they are deposited in front of a rusted out Fire Nation ship half-encased in ice, left over from one of the early battles of the war. The ever curious Aang insists on exploring the ship, and Katara uneasily goes along with it despite concerns about booby traps, but when Aang continues to express complete ignorance of the war between the Fire Nation and the other three elemental nations, Katara asks Aang how long he was in the iceberg. With no sense of time due to being frozen, he thinks it was a few days; Katara explains that it was more like a hundred ''years''. But before they can process this revelation, Aang accidentally springs one of the booby traps Katara mentioned, sending flares into the air. Aang is able to use airbending to get himself and Katara out of the boat safely.

But the flares and airbending display are both seen by a telescope-aided Zuko from the deck of his ship, and his eyes narrow as his view shifts to the Water Tribe village on the horizon. He's found the Avatar ''and'' his hideout.
----
!!Tropes

-->'''Katara:''' ''(to Sokka)'' Watch out! Go left! Go left! ''(their canoe crashes)'' You call that left?

Back on the iceberg, Aang offers to have Appa fly Katara and Sokka back to their village, but after a century in an iceberg, Appa is still too out of it to fly, and they swim back instead. The next day, Katara introduces Aang to the villagers, who are excited to see an airbender after so many years. Katara's grandmother advises her not to put too much faith in the young boy, but Katara is optimistic that she can hone her waterbending skills from a fellow elemental bender. When she pitches the idea to Aang - once she is able to get his attention away from chasing down penguins to go penguin sledding - he observes that airbending and waterbending require different techniques, so she'd need to learn from another waterbender, and she's the last one at the South Pole. In that case, why not go to the North Pole?, Aang suggests. He'd be happy to accompany her - as long as she makes good on her promise to go penguin sledding with him.

And so the two of them go penguing sledding, only to be deposited in front of a rusted out Fire Nation ship half-encased in ice, left over from one of the early battles of the war. The ever curious Aang insists on exploring the ship, and Katara uneasily goes along with it despite concerns about booby traps, but when Aang continues to express complete ignorance of the war between the Fire Nation and the other three elemental nations, Katara asks Aang how long he was in the iceberg. With no sense of time due to being frozen, he thinks it was a few days; Katara explains that it was more like a hundred ''years''. But before they can process this revelation, Aang accidentally springs one of the booby traps Katara mentioned, sending flares into the air. Aang is able to use airbending to get himself and Katara out of the boat safely.

But the beacon was seen by the Fire Nation, even if it wasn't sent to them deliberately; a single Fire Nation ship is sailing the waters near the South Pole. Its passengers include the Firelord's son, Prince Zuko, a young man with an almost completely shaved head and horrific burn scar on one side of his face. He is convinced the beam could only have been produced by the Avatar, for whom he has been searching for three years. Zuko's uncle, the retired General Iroh, is accompanying him on his search, and is hesitant to reach the same conclusion, but Zuko orders the ship to head for the source of the light.

The series begins with opening narration; it is explained that in this world, there are are four elements, and with them, four corresponding nations: The Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, Fire Nation and Air Nomads. Our narrator tells us that she's often been told of stories of the 'old days', when the world was at peace, kept in balance by the Avatar - the one person in every generation who controls all four elements. However, one day he simply...vanished. The Fire Nation took advantage of his disappearance, wiping out the Air Nomads and opening war on the entire world.

And so the show proper begins, revealing a beautiful seascape of ice and water. We come across a fishing boat where Sokka is hunting for fish - not that Katara doesn't want to, however. While her brother fishes with the traditional spear, she takes off her glove and attempts to capture a fish in a globe of water, pulling it delicately into the air. She succeeds too, and in her excitement, she and Sokka crash into each other; losing the fish and getting the latter soaked.

An argument ensues, with Sokka complaining that every time she "plays with magic water, I get soaked." Unfortunately, as they quarrel, they forget to watch the boat, and the canoe gets swept away into an ice floe. They desperately try to escape, but the boat gets smashed between the ice, the siblings just barely saving their skins. Angry, frightened, and their tempers a little short from being trapped out in an ice field with no transportation, the two are quick to blame each other. Sokka sarcastically taunts "why didn't you just ''water bend'' us out of the ice?"

That's too much for Katara. She snaps, accusing Sokka of being sexist - ever since their mother died, he's relied on her for everything, pretending to be a fighter to escape chores while she has to do all the real work! How dare he! But as she rants, Sokka looks more and more frightened - not at his sister, but at the waves of water her flailing is creating, which are splitting an iceberg behind her. It breaks apart, sending a wave of water towards them. Brother and sister cling to the ice, buffeted by the wave created by Katara's water bending. When the figurative dust settles, Katara stares awestruck at the ice. "''I'' did that?"

And then, from under the water, comes an eerie blue glow.

Something comes floating to the surface; a near perfect sphere of ice, glowing palely from within. And inside you can just make out the silhouette of a figure, trapped inside. Katara immediately steals her brother's club, racing towards the iceberg to crack it open. She whacks it heavily, Sokka shouting his protests - she doesn't know what's in there, ''anything'' could happen -

Suddenly a bright light shoots straight into the sky.

The two stare at the pearly beacon, and the shape of a man comes climbing out of the rim of the iceberg; and then the body of a small boy falls down, Katara barely catching him. He opens his eyes drowsily, something important on his lips, that he simply ''must'' tell Katara: "Will you go penguin sledding with me?"

This is Aang, a young boy who accidentally got frozen into a block of ice, not that he seems to mind much. He's cheerful, optimistic and incredibly playful, so Sokka immediately suspects him of being a Fire Nation spy. After all, he sent the glowing beacon into the air - clearly a signal to send in more troops. It's patently ridiculous, as Katara points out - this kid doesn't have a bad bone in his body.

But he may not have sent the signal, but that doesn't mean it wasn't seen. Because one single Fire Nation ship ''did'' spot the beam. "Did you see that?" a young man asks. He's nearly bald, dressed in pure red and black, with a horrific burn across one of his golden eyes. Prince Zuko. "It could be the Avatar."

But his uncle Iroh is doubtful, pointing out that the Avatar has been missing for a whole century, and although all the previous Fire Lords have attempted to find them, they always failed. After so many false leads, he is hesitant to get his royal charge's hopes up. But Zuko will not be swayed, and orders the boat to set course for the light.

Back at the iceberg, Katara and Sokka learn more about the strange boy. In addition to being overly cheerful and having a six-legged-bison-''thing'' as a pet, it turns out he's also an air bender. Y'know, one of the those nomads that haven't been seen in one hundred years? Of course, that's crazy - Aang saw air benders just the other day! Definitely not extinct.

He offers the siblings a ride on his flying bison Appa, something which Sokka is hesitant about because the boy seems insane, and bison can't fly. But it turns out that they...er, can't. Nope, Appa's attempts to soar fail miserably. He can, however, swim, and so the three travel back to Sokka and Katara's village.

Cut to the next day, where Aang is waking up from a sepia-toned nightmare about a storm and drowning. Katara ushers him out into the village, where everyone is excited to meet their visitor, especially since they've never seen an air bender before. Aang shows off his flying tricks, but soon everyone has to go off for chores; Katara's grandmother urges her not to put too much faith into the boy. He's just a child, after all.

But Katara has a plan - you see, being a water bender, she hopes Aang can teach her bending. As soon as the chores are gone, she stops Aang from interrupting Sokka's warrior session with the tribe's toddlers. They try to explain things to him - Katara about training, Sokka about how you can't act this way with a war going on - but before either she or Sokka can get a word in, the boy flees, chasing off after a penguin he wishes to ride. Eventually catching up with him, Katara manages to ask whether he'll help teach her. Aang loves the idea, only there's one problem; he bends air, while she bends water, which requires completely different techniques. Katara says she wishes there were someone else in her tribe to teach her, but she's the last water bender in the whole South Pole - which prompts an idea from Aang. Why doesn't she travel to the ''North'' Pole? It would be a long journey, but he'd be happy to come with her - as long as she helps him ride a penguin.

She does, gladly, and the two have great fun sliding down ice slopes on the backs of the birds - only to be deposited in front of a looming shape. It's a Fire Nation ship half encased in ice, a remnant of an early battle in the war. Aang is confused - what's this war everyone keeps talking about? Katara simply says that the ship has been there since before she was born, and is a very bad memory for their people. Aang, of course, thinks that means it would be the ''perfect'' thing to explore. Katara is hesitant, but at Aang's urging, the two climb up to the ship to investigate. Inside is an old shell of rusted metal, and just as creepy as one would expect. Aang is completely entranced - he never heard about this type of fighting between the Water Tribe and Fire Nation.

Suspicion grows in Katara's head. He ''doesn't'' know about the war. At all. "Aang, how long were you in that iceberg?"

"I don't know, a few days, maybe?"

"I think..," she begins, and then pauses. "I think it was more like a hundred years."

But before either of them can really digest this information, Aang accidentally trips, springing a booby-trap. Flares are released into the air, and they are forced to make an escape, Aang using his bending to quickly carry themselves down from the boat.

Through a telescope, Zuko watches the air bending display, his eyes narrowing. He sees the village on the horizon. Finally, after one hundred years, they've found the Avatar's hiding place.

-->"Some people believe that the Avatar was never reincarnated into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken. But I still haven't lost hope."

'The Boy In The Iceberg' is the very first episode of Nickelodeon's animated series WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender. It introduces the viewers to the world of Avatar, the concept of bending, and the main characters of the first season.

The series begins to opening narration; it is explained that in this world, there are are four elements, and with them, four corresponding nations: The Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, Fire Nation and Air Nomads. Our narrator tells us that she's often been told of stories of the 'old days', when the world was at peace, kept in balance by the Avatar- the one person in every generation who controls all four elements. However, one day he simply....vanished. The Fire Nation took advantage of his disappearance, wiping out the Air Nomads and opening war on the entire world.

Since then, one-hundred years have passed, and the war continues to rage. Our narrator is revealed to be Katara, a young girl living in the Southern Water Tribe with her brother Sokka. Three years ago the able bodied men of the tribe, including the chief (their father), left to help fight in the resistance. It doesn't seem likely that they'll win, however- the Fire Nation is gaining ground in the war effort. Nonetheless, Katara is still hopeful that somehow the war can be ended.

And so the show proper begins, revealing a beautiful seascape of ice and water. We come across a fishing boat where Sokka is hunting for fish- not that Katara doesn't want to, however. While her brother fishes with the traditional spear, she takes off the glove and attempts to capture of fish in a globe of water, pulling it delicately into the air. She succeeds too, and in her excitment, she and Sokka crash into each other; losing the fish and getting the latter soaked.

That's too much for Katara. She snaps, accusing Sokka of being sexist- ever since their mother died, he'd relied on her for everything, pretending to be a fighter to escape chores while she had to do all the real work! How dare he! But as she rants, Sokka looks more and more frightened- not at his sister, but at the waves of water her flailing is creating, which splits in two an iceberg behind her. It breaks apart, sending a wave of water towards them. Brother and sister cling to the ice, buffeted by the wave created by Katara's water bending. When the figurative dust settles, Katara stares awestruck at the ice. "''I'' did that?"

Something comes floating to the surface; a near perfect sphere of ice, glowing palely from within. And inside you can just make out the silhouette of a figure, trapped inside. Katara immediately steals her brother's club, racing towards the iceberg to crack it open. She whacks it heavily, Sokka shouting his protests- she doesn't know what's in there, ''anything'' could happen-

This is Aang, a young boy who accidentally got frozen into a block of ice, not that he seems to mind much. He's cheerful, optimistic and incredibly playful, so Sokka immediately suspects him of being a Fire Nation spy. After all, he sent the glowing beacon into the air- clearly a signal to send in more troops. Its patently ridiculous, as Katara points out- this kid doesn't have a bad bone in his body.

But remember- he may not have sent the signal, but that doesn't mean it wasn't seen. Because one single fire nation ship ''did'' spot the beam. "Did you see that?" a young man asks. He's nearly bald, dressed in pure red and black, with a horrific burn across one of his golden eyes. Prince Zuko. "It could be the Avatar."

Back at the iceberg, Katara and Sokka learn more about the strange boy. In addition to being overly cheerful and having a six-legged-bison-''thing'' as a pet, it turns out he's also an air bender. Y'know, one of the those nomads that haven't been seen in one-hundred years? Of course, that's crazy- Aang saw air benders just the other day! Definitely not extinct.

Cut to the next day, where Aang is waking up from a sepia-toned nightmare about a storm and drowning. Katara ushers him out into the village, where everyone is excited to meet their visitor, especially since they've never seen an air bender before. Aang shows off his flying tricks, but soon everyone has to go off for chores; Katara's grandmother urges her not to put too much faith into the boy. He's just a child, after-all.

But Katara has a plan- you see, being a water bender, she hopes Aang can teach her bending. As soon as the chores are gone, she stops Aang from interrupting Sokka's warrior session with the tribe's toddlers. They try to explain things to him- Katara about training, Sokka about how you can't act this way with a war going on- but before either she or Sokka can get a word in, the boy flees, chasing off after a penguin he wishes to ride. Eventually catching up with him, Katara manages to ask whether he'll help teach her. Aang loves the idea, only there's one problem; he bends air, while she bends water, which requires completely different techniques. Katara says she wishes there were someone else in her tribe to teach her, but she's the last water bender in the whole South Pole- which prompts an idea from Aang. Why doesn't she travel to the ''North'' Pole? It would be a long journey, but he'd be happy to come with her- as long as she helps him ride a penguin.

She does, gladly, and the two have great fun sliding down ice slopes on the backs of the birds- only to be deposited in front of a looming shape. Its a Fire Nation ship half encased in ice, a remnant of an early battle in the war. Aang is confused- what's this war everyone keeps talking about? Katara simply says that the ship has been there since before she was born, and is a very bad memory for their people. Aang, of course, thinks that means it would be the ''perfect'' thing to explore. Katara is hesitant, but at Aang's urging, the two climb up to the ship to investigate. Inside is an old shell of rusted metal, and just as creepy as one would expect. Aang is completely entranced- he never heard about this type of fighting between the Water Tribe and Fire Nation.

* PillarOfLight: Zuko's GenreSavvy enough to know it's worth a look.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Zuko happens to be looking for the avatar in the Norther water Tribe the same day he wakes up from a century long sleep.

* SealedGoodInACan: Aang, the Avatar, The Master of All Four Elements, the only one who can restore balance to the world.