[from my myspace] Avatar: The Last Airbender

[intro]
I used myspace.com blogs for the past few years for my randomly-spaced blogging. Therefore, I am jumpstarting my blog here with most of those blogs, lightly edited.
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Original posting: Saturday, March 18, 2006, 7:07 PM
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The best show to hit Nickelodeon in a long time is this show called Avatar: The Last Airbender. I pause for moment to let all the so-called "mature" people to laugh because I'm about to write about a cartoon series.

[pauses]

[pauses a little bit more]

Okay, has the laughing ceased? No? Tough, because I'm moving on, with or without you. Well, actually, if you choose to stop reading, then I wouldn't be "moving on." Well, then again, the text would be "moving on," with you reading or not reading. Anyway ...

The premise of this show is that there are four great Nations: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. People who can manipulate the elements are called Waterbenders, Earthbenders, Firebenders, or Airbenders. The most powerful bender in the world is known as the Avatar.

There is only one Avatar in existence at a time because he/she is continually reincarnated. The same "bodily essence" or whatever becomes the Avatar. However, the path he/she chooses to master all four elements again varies from lifetime to lifetime. Only the Avatar can master all four elements; and in doing so, he/she maintains world order and balance.

Unfortunately, 100 years ago, the Avatar mysteriously disappears. The Fire Nation takes this as its cue to fight a global war to rid the world of the other three Nations (Water, Earth, and Air) to become the sole nation left, free to eternally rule.

The war continues stalematedly for a hundred years until two young siblings ([sister] Katara and [brother] Sokka) from the southern Water Tribe discover a young 12-year-old Airbender trapped in an iceberg for a hundred years. The Air Nation had long ceased to exist, and therefore the Last Airbender is destined to become the next Avatar.

The moment of this discovery begins the Nickelodeon series. The first season was called "Book 1: Water." The second season (that just began yesterday [Friday, March 17, 2006] at 7 PM Central Time) is entitled "Book 2: Earth." Each episode is called a "chapter" and then it is numbered in order. So the fifth episode in the first season was called "Book 1: Water, Chapter 5." The second episode in season two will be called "Book 2: Earth, Chapter 2." Wow, I just spent too many words describing that....

Anyway, during season 1, Aang (the Avatar) learned waterbending. Katara is already learning waterbending, and for the most part, they end up learning together. By the end of the season, Katara is deemed a WaterMaster or something by the Waterbending Master in the Northern Water Tribe.

Aang, Katara, and Katara's brother Sokka traversed throughout the world on Aang's flying water bison (Yes, you read it right. His name is Appa, and he's huuuge!). Also accompanying them is Aang's flying winged-lemur pet Momo.

The first season basically has the group trying to get from the southern Water Tribe (where Aang was found trapped in the iceberg) to the northern Water Tribe, where Aang was to find a WaterMaster to learn waterbending skills from. The southern Water Tribe is actually really small and sad.... Katara was the only waterbender there.

Through the travels, they run into Zuko often. Zuko is a Fire Nation Prince who was sent by his father the King to try to find the Avatar (who will hopefully ultimately thwart the Fire Nation's goal of world domination). Zuko's short, fat uncle also accompanies Zuko in his world trek to find and capture the Avatar.

In this second season, we were just introduced to Zuko's sister, who has these amazing electric powers as far as I can tell from last night's episode. She seems eviller, but I think we'll be exposed to her softer sides if she becomes one of the main enemies. I mean, you can only do so much with a completely evil antagonist; such enemies need dimensions to last an entire season.

Hm.... I should've made you somewhat curious about the Nick show Avatar: The Last Airbender by now. If not, you should be shot. And quartered. And burned. And chopped up. And incinerated again into black ashes. And then just left there. ... Or something else less drastic....

You can go Nickelodeon's website and find Avatar to learn more about it, or you can just go here: http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/avatar2/index.jhtml

Uh... what else, what else to say.... Oh, I wrote a short research paper about the Four Elements and the Four Humors for my British Literature before 1800 class. It's 4-5 pages and about 1000 words. If enough people demand it, I can post it as another blog. It's quite interesting too. And I made an A on the paper, so it's not a crappy essay.

Everyone watch Avatar!!! New episodes come on at 7 PM Central Time on Fridays on Nickelodeon. Reruns are shown randomly though too. Yep. My job here is done. (And yes, I realized the topic of this entire thing is really all about Avatar and not just a measly "sub-topic"!)