Zuko was one of the last characters to be written into the show. The Fire Lord was meant to be the show's main antagonist, but the writers realized he would not be able to cause Aang and his friends trouble sitting from his throne. Zuko was then written into the show.Mako, who played Uncle Iroh, passed away in the middle of recording his parts for the last seven episodes of season 2. They had to quickly re-cast the part of Iroh. The re-casting put a halt to production on season 3. Mako's part was succeeded by Greg Baldwin in the third season.The elemental bending movements are based on martial arts. Earthbending: Hung Gar Kung Fu; Firebending: Northern Shaolin Kung Fu; Waterbending: Tai Chi; Airbending: Baguazhang.The "Cabbage Man" was not originally meant to be a recurring character, but due to the fans' response and the writers finding it so comedic, the Cabbage Man became a running gag throughout the series.The calligraphy on the top and bottom of the map form a rhyming couplet when read aloud in Chinese. The characters at the top read "Powers are divided into four," while those at the bottom read "The world is guided by one.""Avatar" is derived from a Sanskrit word which literally means "those who descend."The symbols of the four nations that are written in the map of the avatar world has a literal meaning in Chinese calligraphy. For example, the symbol of water is joined with another that means virtue; for the one of earth, it means strong; for fire, it means fierce, and finally for of air, it means peaceful.During the opening credits, the silhouetted figures demonstrating bending styles are future characters (first appearance) : The Waterbender is Master Pakku of the northern water tribe (episode 18). The Earthbender is Sud, Roku's earthbending teacher, he was also an early prototype scrapped character design for Toph (episode 46). The Firebender is Princess Azula (episode 12). The Airbender is the only bender not equal to any named character. The Avatar demonstrating all four bending arts is Roku, the Avatar before Aang (episode 7, but also a statue in episode 3).All three seasons opened on a boat.Though they are brothers. Iroh and Fire Lord Ozai are never once seen together on screen. They were in the same war room when Zuko spoke out of turn and in Zuko's Agni Kai against his father, but they never share any dialogue.During the very early stages of development, the show was going to take place thousands of years into the future.Only five of the characters throughout the series have their age explicitly mentioned: Aang is 112 (though only 12 biologically), Zuko and Yue are 16, Toph is 12, and Tom-Tom (Mai's brother) is 2. It is also mentioned by Ty Lee that Mai is fifteen years older than her brother, which would make her 17. Canonically, Mai is only 15 years old though, which would mean Ty Lee's line is a writing error. Besides Aang, at least two other characters are over 100 years old: Bumi (who knew Aang before he got frozen) and Guru Pathik (who knew Monk Gyatso). Certain pieces of information from various episodes also imply that Firelord Sozin lived for about 100 years, Avatar Kyoshi had lived for 230 years. Avatar Kuruk died at the age of 33, and that makes him the shortest lived avatar ever.Iroh was not originally meant to be Zuko's uncle. He was originally meant to be merely a Fire Bending mentor to Zuko.Creator Michael Dante DiMartino left Family Guy (1999) to work on Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008).Almost all of the animals in the show are a combination of two animals. For example, Appa is half bison, half manatee and Momo is half bat, half lemur, except Bosco who is a full bear, and said to be weird that he is only a bear, and Miyuki the cat that was the pet of the old herbalist.The character of Toph Bei Fong was originally written as a male, specifically a 16 year old teenage boy. The earthbender in the intro was Toph's original design. The character was initially designed to be a foil to Sokka, with Toph being a muscly jock to Sokka's nerdy personality. The writers then toyed with the idea of making Toph, the world's greatest earthbender, into a 12 year old little blind girl, which would have been funnier to them. Creators DiMartino and Konietzko were initially not fond of the idea but grew to like it after several discussions with the writers. Toph's prototype design was reused for minor characters like The Boulder, her opponent in the earthbending wrestling ring, and Sud, Avatar Roku's earthbending teacher.Aang's friend Bumi's name literally means Earth in many Indian languages.The character of Admiral Zhao was inspired by the character William Tavington from The Patriot (2000). Casting director Maryanne Dacey was asked to find someone like the character and managed to get Jason Isaacs, who portrayed Tavington in the film.Bloodbending, which is introduced in season 3 with guest character Hama, was originally written to be more brutal. The idea was that any characters that were bloodbent would show visible pain and agony to the technique, but Nickelodeon asked the writers to tone down the bloodbending, as the idea was considered too horrific for a children's show.None of the characters, except for Toph Bei Fong, have a last name. They are known from their respected Nations (i.e. Zuko of the Fire Nation; Katara of the Southern Water Tribe).The firebenders' duel, which plays an important role throughout the series, is called "Agni-kai." "Agni" is a Sanskrit word for "fire," and is a name of a Hindu fire deity. "Kai" can be translated from Japanese as "meeting" or "together." "Fiery meeting" is an adequate description of the Agni-kai.The four Chinese characters above the title translate to "The Divine Medium who had descended upon the Mortal World."Dai Li, the name of the protectors of Ba Sing Se, has a meaning in Chinese, which is "to act on behalf of someone in a responsible position" or "to act as an agent or proxy."Admiral Zhao, just like Zuko, was one of the last characters to be written into the show. It was decided that season 1 needed a real villain for viewers to sink their hate into, because Zuko was too sympathetic to be hated and Ozai didn't have enough of a presence in season 1 to be a real villain yet, so Zhao was written into the show alongside Zuko to be the season's antagonist.The music for the credits is the same throughout all of the episodes except in the the series finale, "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang," where they went for more heroic music.WWE Hall of Famer, Mick Foley who voices The Boulder in 3 episodes, based his performance on another WWE alumni and wrestling friend, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Copying The Rock's maneurism of speech and referring to himself at the third person. Mick Foley and The Rock have been both rivals and friends in the ring, even teaming up as The Rock n' Sock connection at one point.Even though Bei Fong is the only actual surname mentioned in the series, there are two fake surnames as well: Fire and Pippinpaddleopsicopolis (made up by Sokka and Aang, respectively).Each episode, from the time the script writing began to the time the episode was finished and ready to air, took about nine months to make. (These time periods overlap, of course, as the show has 61 episodes, which would take more than 45 years, if production had been sequential.)Counting the episodes where they do not have any lines, the most prominent characters of the show are Aang, Katara, and Sokka, who appear in every episode of the series except episode 27, "Zuko Alone" (although Aang's spiritless body can be seen during the "Previously, on Avatar..." introduction). The second place belongs to Momo, who appears in 56 episodes, followed by Appa with 54, Zuko with 48, Iroh with 39, and Toph with 36 episodes. The most infrequently recurring major character is Azula, who appears in 22 episodes.Fire Lord Ozai is voiced by Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame."Lake Laogai," the headquarters of the Dai Li agents, has a meaning in Chinese; Laogai is short for Laodonggaizao, which means "reform through labor" and is the name of the Chinese political prison camps where many political opponents were incarcerated during the 1960s, and is still in existence.In the early stages of writing, Momo, the flying lemur that acts as an animal guide to the group, was initially conceived as the reincarnation of Monk Gyatso, Aang's long dead airbending mentor and friend. It would have been a reference to the Buddhist belief in reincarnation and to show that, even in death, Gyatso will always be by his side. This idea was scrapped.The original voice of Aang was Mitchell Musso, playing him in the show's pilot. However, the final voice for Aang was Zach Tyler Eisen.Azula's character design is actually based on Grey DeLisle's (her voice actress) headshots.Other than Air, Water, Earth and Fire, there are considered to be other elements that can be bent, such as Spirit, Ice, Plant, Combustion, Lava, Metal, Sound, Blood, and Lightning (though technically, all of these are considered sub-skills of Air, Water, Earth and Fire).An owl spirit introduced in season 2 in the library is known as Wan Shi Tong, he who knows 10,000 things. His name quite literally translates to "one who knows 10,000 things".Throughout the series, when the main group rides Appa, you can often see their rolled up sleeping bags or tents behind the saddle. The rolls form three spirals, which is the symbol of the air nomads.Azula uses blue fire unique to her. Azul means blue in Spanish and Portuguese.Many have wondered if this series is considered to be anime. United States fans stated that since it is not animated in Japan, it is not an anime series. However, many fans from Japan say that anime is not based on nationality, but rather in animation style. Because of this, the Complete Series box-set has been reported to be found with other anime box-sets in video stores.Firelord Ozai's face isn't seen until season 3.Although it is never explained just how Sozin's comet gives Fire benders enhanced strength, within the theology of the show, it is possible (if not likely) that as the comet skims the atmosphere, it acts like a "second sun," giving them a temporary extra boost in power.Koh the Face Stealer, a spirit introduced in season 1, had two other names for consideration during the writing process. Originally, the two other names were "Koh the Mug Mugger" and "Koh the Expression Taker".Azula was originally thought of as a boy in the early writing stages. The writers quickly realized though that having Zuko and a brother feuding throughout the series would have been too reminiscent of Cain and Abel so she was gender-swapped into his sister. Ty Lee was supposed to be the character's love interest. Some of this characterization still remains in the show though, as Ty Lee constantly kisses up to Azula and worships her. The in-universe justification is that because Ty Lee is canonically terrified of Azula, she's constantly trying her best to not get on her bad side.In the Greek dubbing of the show, the name Katara was changed to Tamara because "katara" is the Greek word for curse.According to creators DiMartino and Konietzko, Grey DeLisle won the role of Azula in the audition because, unlike the other voice actresses trying out for the part, DeLisle did not yell any of her lines. Based on what she read about the character, she felt that Azula was powerful enough that she didn't need to yell to establish her dominance.During the same year, Dante Basco and Mae Whitman were working on another animated series together, which was American Dragon: Jake Long (2005), where Basco provided the voice for Jake Long and Whitman provided the voice for Rose.A scrapped plot-line for season 3 would have had Azula be forced to enter an arranged marriage.Zach Tyler Eisen's final acting role, as of March 20, 2021 The scene at the very end of the Season 3 episode "The Ember Island Players" where the group sees a misleading play about their lives, saying it's bad, but "The Effects were Decent" foreshadowed the audience reception of the M. Night Shaymalan film based on the series "The Last Airbender" which was released 2 years after the end of the TV series.Aang's arrow tattoos symbolize that he is an Air Bending master.Jeff Goldblum was rumored to have been cast as Zuko, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.When you view the scar on Zuko's face closely, in many scenes it looks like another completelely separate smiling face, perhaps representing the conflict within.The series finale aired the same weekend of the release of The Dark Knight.Ty Lee states that she has six other sisters in her family. Olivia Hack, Ty Lee's voice actor, had previously portrayed Cindy Brady, the youngest daughter of a huge family, in the Brady Bunch films.Aang's Airbending teacher, Monk Gyatso, is named after the current Dalai Lama, whose full name is Tenzin Gyatso. In the spin-off series, The Legend of Korra (2012-2014), Aang has a son named Tenzin.The opening shot of every episode (the shot which contains the episode's number and title) is accompanied by a melody. The melody for any given episode is unique and never repeated exactly in any other opening shot. Often, this melody characterizes the episode's most significant event. For example, the melody in "The Painted Lady" is part of the Painted Lady's theme, and in "The Firebending Masters," it is a slow version of the Sun Warriors chanting. The melodies of the first and the last episodes of the series are the different versions of the Avatar theme.Jet, who is reintroduced in season 2 after his guest appearance in season 1, is canonically deceased according to the writers. Jet's death was forcefully made ambiguous because Nickelodeon wouldn't allow the creators to explicitly kill off a child character in the show. After Long Feng jabs his torso with an earth pillar, Katara unsuccessfully tries to heal him with her waterbending, and Jet tells her and the rest of the group to leave because he'll be fine. Toph, who is able to sense lies, tells Katara that Jet is lying. This was the only way for the writers to try and confirm that Jet died. Despite that, it was still a source of confusion for viewers, and the writers even poked fun at this in The Ember Island Players episode, where Zuko asks if actor Jet died in the play and Sokka replies that it's unclear.In the first episode of each season, Aang is waking up. In episode 1 of season 1, he awakes from an iceberg; in episode 1 of season 2, he awakes from a nightmare, and in episode 1 of season 3, he is awaken from being knocked out by Azula in the previous season.The fate of Zuko and Azula's mother, Ursa, is never revealed in the series. One of the last scenes in the entire series features Zuko visiting his father in prison, asking what happened to their mother. The creators originally intended to make a television movie special about this quest, making the near series ending scene have sense to it. However, the idea was scrapped in favor of The Legend of Korra (2012-2014). The story was instead revealed in "The Search" comic books.Suki was originally written as a guest character for season 1, who wasn't meant to come back. However, the character grew in popularity with the fans and she was brought back for a few more episodes in season 2, and eventually became a main character in the second half of season 3, participating in the plan to take down Ozai's airships with Sokka and Toph.The name of the princess from the Northern Water Tribe (and Sokka's first girlfriend), Yue, can be (depending on the tones) the Chinese word for "moon." Suki, the name of Sokka's second girlfriend (more commonly anglicized as tsuki), also means moon, but only in Japanese.Katara's name was originally Kya in the unaired pilot episode, but was changed before the start of the proper series, as it was discovered that Kya was the name of a video game character and the creators wanted to avoid a potential lawsuit. Her name was initially changed to Kanna, but her name was finally changed to Katara. However, Kya was used for the name of Katara and Sokka's mother, and then Katara and Aang's daughter in next series "The Legend of Korra." Kanna became the name of Katara and Sokka's grandmother.All the elements have a "sub" element: blood bending is based on water, metal bending is based on earth, and lighting strikes are a variant of fire bending. Spiritual projection and levitation shown in the next series.Guru Pathik explains to Aang near the season 2 finale that in order to master the Avatar state, he needed to sever his romantic connection to Katara, as Avatars couldn't love. This idea was eventually scrapped by season 3, as it would have conflicted with several bits of established lore, such as the fact that Avatar Kuruk canonically had a wife as confirmed by Koh in season 1. Avatar Roku was also revealed to be Zuko's maternal grandfather in season 3, revealing that he married and had children, which wouldn't have been possible if the show had stuck with the notion that Avatars couldn't love. It also would have brought up the question of how Aang would repopulate the world with Airbenders if he couldn't love.Though they are never shown doing so on-screen, the writers confirmed that twin sisters Lo and Li, Azula's firebending teachers, are the ones who were operating the tanks seen in The Chase and the giant Drill that was penetrating Ba Sing Se's walls.In the first and last season of the series, Aang makes a flash in the sky. In the first episode when he emerges from the iceberg and in the last when he defeats Ozai.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Table of Contents

Show Trivia