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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a fantasy world on a planet that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four pre-industrialized nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Within each nation, there is an order of men and women called "Benders" who have an inborn ability to manipulate their native element. Bending is a powerful art form, combining martial arts and elemental mysticism. The bending arts are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.
In each generation, one Bender is capable of bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the Spirit of the Planet manifested in human form. When an Avatar dies, the Avatar Spirit reincarnates into an unborn baby native to the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. Starting with the mastery of his (or as the case may be, her) native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements in the order of the cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire, and autumn for air. It is shown in the series that learning to bend the element opposite of one's native element is extremely difficult, as a result of opposing fighting styles and opposing doctrines.
The Avatar also has a unique power that resides within him called the Avatar State. This channels the powers of all the Avatar's previous incarnations into one massive energy that is directed at all enemies around him. Although the Avatar State is incredibly powerful, at this time the Avatar also becomes most vulnerable. If he is killed in this state, then the spirits of all past Avatars will die along with him and the Avatar Cycle will be permanently broken - the Avatar will "cease to exist." This state can only be triggered when the Avatar is in an intense emotional state or in great danger; it is a defence mechanism of the Avatar. It can also be released when someone the Avatar loves, such as a friend, family member or beloved, is in trouble. When the Avatar enters this state, his eyes and mouth (and, in Airbender cases, tattoos) begin to glow brightly and the voices of the past Avatars can be heard behind his or her own.
Throughout the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in balance and harmony.[4] The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits as well as many entities who existed at the beginning of the world.
Plot synopsis
A century prior to the series' opening, Aang, a 12-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomad's Southern Air Temple, learned from his monk instructors that he was the Avatar. Usually, the Avatar is told of his true identity only after turning sixteen; however, the head monks feared that a war between the four nations was on the horizon, and that the Avatar would soon be needed to help maintain balance. Shortly thereafter, it was decided that Aang would be separated from his guardian, Monk Gyatso, and sent to the Eastern Air Temple to finish his training.
Confused, frightened, and overwhelmed by all that was happening, Aang fled from his home on his Flying Bison Appa. While over the ocean, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Unknowingly entering the Avatar State, Aang used Airbending to put himself and Appa into an air bubble. The air bubble quickly froze into a sphere of ice, putting them both into a state of suspended animation.
When the series opens one hundred years later, the Fire Nation is on the brink of victory in its imperialist war. The Water Tribes are in crisis — the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have gone off to war, leaving their home defenseless, and the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. The vast Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's domination, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes for victory grow bleaker with each passing year.
In the present day, two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe — Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother Sokka — discover and free Aang from his iceberg. Aang soon finds out that in his absence, the war that the monks feared had started. The very year he vanished, the ruthless Fire Lord Sozin took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the Firebending-enhancing powers of a powerful burning comet to launch a war on the three other nations. To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in an effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving him as the last known Airbender in existence.
Aang then realizes that as the Avatar, it is his duty to restore harmony and peace to the four nations. Along with his newly discovered friends Katara and Sokka, his Flying Bison Appa and his Winged Lemur Momo, and later the blind Earthbender Toph, Aang travels the world to master all four elements, while evading capture by Fire Nation's banished Prince Zuko and later the ruthless Princess Azula.
Although it takes years of discipline and training to master any one element, Aang must master them all and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozin's Comet will grant the Firebenders the power to finish the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will be able to restore balance to the world.
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