Avatar the Last Airbender

Well it has been a while since you saw the journey of the gaang...

Also at least this show is still a masterpiece of gold when compared to its sequel. Not to bash on the legend of Korra, But some series were a little... Ehhh...

That said at least its watchable. But your getting away from the focus of your story. As you have to focus back in on the adventures of the last Airbender, Aang, As he tries to bring back balance to a world trapped in war. Which he unknowingly helped create when he ran away from the air temple about a hundred years ago... Huh.

Well at least you can say Aangs fear at least saved his ass from suffering the same fate as the other airbenders. Still this show is filled to the brim with action, adventure, drama and more.

So with a click of your remote you select the Last Airbender option on the list and are greeted with the sight of a simple selection menu that all DVD box sets have, but with that said you notice something rather odd about this menu as there is a strange option at the very bottom of the screen that says "Character selection." So, out of curiosity, you click on the new menu option and are greeted with a strange street fighter like selection screen that contains all the characters of the show on it.

Your not to sure what to make of this selection screen, but from what you can guess, its a background lore system. Still uncertain, but curious, you immediately spot three characters out of the line up that catch your eye the most.

1. Katara: this sugar Queen herself, Katara is the quintessential mom of the Gaang. Not surprising considering the fact that she lost her mother in a fire nation raid when she was a child and unfortunately bore witness to her ****.

The reason for her **** was mainly due to the fact that the fire nation raid on her village was due to the fire nation trying to eliminate the remaining waterbenders in the southern pole. To which Katara is the sole and only remaining water Bender at the southern pole as her mothers sacrificed insured this. As a result of her mother sacrifice and her father leaving to go help with the war efforts against the fire nation, Katara had to mature much faster than normal.

That’s not to say she doesn’t have her own moments of childishness but… It just that it doesn’t happen that often and despite losing her mother and essentially her father at such a young age, she is still kind and sweet to all those she meets. Adding to this is the fact that she’s a water bending master things to her experience and training under the northern Waterbending Masters who she had to essentially prove herself against as their backwards culture is something less than desired.

However, Katara doesn’t know just combat as she’s an experienced and skilled healer and even rescued the avatar from near **** when he was struck by a bolt of lightning to the back, that would’ve normally been fatal to anyone else. Which only speaks leagues about her abilities as a healer. Not only this, but in the sequel series to the show, Katara has led to a very ripe old age of 90 and though she may be shorter, she is still the same Katara.

2. Azula: Ahh… Yes, the crazy fire bitch herself. Azula is a unfortunate case of piss poor parenting combined with high expectations and the lack of any meaningful relationships in her life leading to an overall unstable personality.

Summarized, Azula grew up as the Princess of the fire nation, the instigators of the hundred year war that the world of avatar has been trapped in for well 100 years. She grew up underneath two parents who are some of the worst parents out there in your own personal opinion. Ozai and Ursa, it would take you forever to describe all the horrific things of these two idiots had done to their daughter, but to sum it up Ozai is a piece of shit and Ursa liked to play favorites. That’s all you’re going to say about it and that’s all you’re going to mention.

Honestly, it’s not a surprise that she went crazy thanks to the high expectations of court and the equally high demands of her completely insane and absolutely brutal father. As by the end of the series Azula suffered a massive nervous breakdown as she started to hear and even see hallucinations of her mother who had left the fire nation in order to protect her brother who in her father’s eyes was a disgrace. This sort of became a complex for Azula as her mother’s love was something he never got, as was any other love for that matter. As a result Azula believed that fear was something that she needed more than anything else and that love was simply a weakness.

This ended up backfiring pretty badly for her as she essentially alienated everyone around her as nobody wanted to go near her or talk to her out of fear. After the series she kinda went on this crazy insane quest to corrupt her brother, the new fire Lord, and attempted to corrupt him into being a dictator like their father, which ultimately failed, but that's besides the point.

3. Toph: the earth rumble champion herself, the blind bandit, and the future chief of police of Republic city. Toph has led a very interesting life to say the least, which is in stark contrast to how her life began as Toph was born blind to a major noble family in the earth kingdom. As a result of her blindness, she was treated her like a piece of glass and never allowed her to go anywhere or do anything by herself.

This ultimately ended up causing the blind girl wanting to rebel against her parents, especially after she learned how to earth and from the original or bending masters themselves, the badger moles which are giant open sized moles that can bend earth underground, no they’re not mole people. Anyway, Toph in response to her parents controlling and overprotective nature decided to sneak out at night and became a massive hit at a local underground fight club called earth rumble and was given the stage name of the blind bandit.

This is how in fact that Toph came into contact with team avatar as the avatar himself, Aang, came looking for an earth bending teacher who listened before they acted. Which describes Toph's overall combat actions as an earth bender as she listens to the earth itself or listens the vibrations of the earth to actually see. This allows her to have a 360° line of sight, so long as the thing or person in question is touching a solid object that’s connected to the ground. Not only this but Toph can accurately tell if most people are lying, but only those who are experienced liars or actors being able to slip past her lie detection skills as she can actually since their heartbeats speed.

More to this though, Toph has a abrasive and rather sarcastic and/or blunt personality, which is fitting considering that she’s an earth bending master. This often had her butting heads with the mom of the group, Katara, as the two would often argue about certain actions and teaching methods for the avatar. Eventually though, they became best friends and even sisters to a degree.

It’s a shame how Toph turned out to be a pretty bad parent in the sequel series, as despite becoming the chief of police of Republic city, essentially the United Nations of the avatar world, she let her daughters do practically everything and anything and didn’t exactly pay a lot of attention to them. Which resulted in some pretty disastrous results, with one daughter becoming a complete and total hard ass and the other essentially becoming a criminal in doing whatever the hell she wanted. There’s more to this story but that’s all you really need to know.

#: look elsewhere...